Magician Prince (29 page)

“Then you will remove the curse,” he asked
hopefully.

There was a short pause.

“What fun is there in doing that?” Kassani
laughed. “The curse will remain intact, but know this my favored
servant: The curse does not rest in you. It will remove Byrn
Lightfoot’s soul from whichever host he occupies.”

Xander was still kneeling, but he bent his
body forward in a deep bow to the statue so that his head almost
touched the floor. “You have my thanks, my goddess, and I promise
you that I will do all within my power to assure that my
granddaughter will one day become the queen of Aurelia.”

“I know that you will,” was the last thing
Kassani said. The air within the temple lost the charge of energy
it held only seconds before that gave it an oppressive feeling.
Xander was now alone.

He considered all that Kassani had told him
and how it affected his plans to rule Aurelia. Eventually he
decided that it did not affect them and more than that, if he did
take up mantle of the king as Byrn Aurel, then it would guarantee
that Avelice would one day have his kingdom as the rightful
successor. If anything his conversation with Kassani only
solidified his resolve that what he was doing was for the best, but
now he knew that his actions would not only benefit magicians, but
would eventually save the world.

However, Learion still viewed him as a threat
and set Sane on a path that could lead to his defeat. He would
either have to destroy the sorcerer or destroy the grimoire that
held his secrets.

He left the temple for the libraries, using
his magic to fly through the air. He would go for the grimoire
first and if luck was on his side, he could surreptitiously remove
the few pages that mattered and be on his way without any of the
dragon race being any wiser.

For now, Sane was protected by the dragon’s
code of passivity in their lands, but eventually they would let
Sane go and he would be forced to return to the world below. Then
if he ever crossed Xander’s path it would be the last thing that
the sorcerer would do.

It took longer than expected for Xander to
find the library he was searching for. The temples had unique
designs on each of them, making them easy to tell apart, but there
were no street signs or signs posted on the otherwise non-descript
buildings that might indicate what they were used for or which of
them might be home to books or other artifacts. The dragons that
lived here had little trouble navigating their streets, but a human
who had only been to their city a few times before and the last
trip being two lifetimes ago would have considerably more trouble,
forcing Xander to stop and ask for directions several times.

When Xander was fairly certain that he had
found the correct library he lowered to the ground and entered the
building. Xander walked past rows of books upon shelves near the
entranceways of varying sizes. The larger volumes were nearly as
tall as the magician and went from there down to a size about half
that of a traditional human book. The book size was an indication
of who wrote the tome. The oversized volumes were the products of
the dragons, while the smaller ones were written by goblins. The
middle-sized races of humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs wrote the
rest of the books, which were in limited supply. In addition to the
wide array of authors that the libraries boasted, they also covered
a plethora of topics. Not all of the dragon treasures were of a
magical nature. Scattered amongst the first floor were cookbooks,
books on horticulture, history, lore of the various races, and
anthologies of anecdotal tales that may or may not have any basis
in truth.

He approached a blue dragon that had pulled
one of the larger tomes from its shelve and was perusing it on the
floor. “Can you direct me to the section on magical spells and
theory?” asked Xander.

The dragon looked up from his book with an
upturned eyebrow. It was difficult to read a dragon’s expression,
but he looked to be caught somewhere between mildly surprised and
annoyed. “Second floor. Take the stairs in the back.” Xander
started to walk away and the dragon added, “The other human is
already up there.”

Sane.

Xander walked at a brisk pace for the stairs,
not wanting to draw undue attention.

What had the sorcerer said or done to
convince Eldar to release him so soon? It did not matter, but it
proved one thing to the necromancer: Sane was more resourceful than
he thought. Maybe he should be dealt with now.

His blood boiled with the magic that jumped
at the chance to serve him. It filled him, reassured him that he
had the power to do whatever needed to be done, but the dragons
still posed a threat if he were to attack the sorcerer and even if
he bested them, then he would never be able to return to this place
in this body or any other. That was a hefty price to pay for the
slaying of one old sorcerer, but when he considered that his old
grimoire could be used to help destroy him the risk suddenly seemed
more acceptable.

There they were! Sane and Southernstar were
descending the staircase as Xander arrived at the bottom. Sane
looked surprised, but Southernstar moved her head and neck so that
she was between them. “Well met, Byrn,” she said without a hint of
irony or accusation, “or would you prefer to be called Xander?”

“Call me what you will,” Xander told her. “I
assume Sane has taken my grimoire.”

“He has, by Eldar’s leave.”

“I wish it returned to me.” Xander held his
staff defensively, not quite daring to take a more aggressive
posture just yet.

“It is no longer yours. Please step
aside.”

The power itched to be released. He wanted to
take the grimoire. He wanted to kill Sane. He wanted to test his
newfound might against the strength of a dragon.

“Give me the grimoire, Sane,” his voice was
dark, threatening. Xander left no room for interpretation of his
meaning.

“We can settle this when we get back to
Aurelia.” Weakness seemed to ooze from Sane’s words. He was trying
to be brave, but even with a dragon to defend him the sorcerer
still feared Xander.

Streaks of dark energy flashed from his staff
and struck Southernstar in the armored scales along her neck,
pushing her down and forcing Sane to run a few steps higher to
avoid her landing on him. Xander laughed in delight as a new surge
of magic welled up in him. “Let us settle this now.”

Sane thrust his staff forward and exhaled a
chilly breath that culminated in a barrage of icy spikes flying
towards Xander, but he stopped them in mid air with one upraised
hand.

“This is not a place of violence!” It was the
blue dragon librarian from behind Xander. “You must leave this-“ He
would have said “place,” but Xander had cut him off with another
bolt of black lightning that forced the dragon to leap back.

A powerful roar could be heard coming from
the entrance and another dragon- this one was dark green with a
look of anger- came bounding in. He made no warnings as
Southernstar or the blue dragon had. This one took a deep breath
and blasted Xander with a wave of hot air that almost knocked him
down. They were still holding back. At first he thought it was to
protect their moral code, but then he realized there was something
else equally valuable to them here. The stronger dragon had not
used its fire breath, because it feared destroying all of the old
tomes that lined the library’s walls and shelves. There were
irreplaceable works in this building.

“I just want one book,” Xander told the
strong one. He kept his tone commanding to make sure the dragon
knew that he was not afraid. “If the other human gives it to me,
then I will leave peacefully.”

The dark green dragon stepped closer as did
the blue librarian. Their progress was slow, calculated. They were
waiting for an opportunity to strike. Southernstar was up too. She
was much closer than the other two and was within pouncing
distance. Sane was just behind her to the right. Xander should have
been afraid, but he was not.

“You would risk having all of this destroyed
for one book?” asked Xander, waving his arms to all of the shelves
around them.

Southernstar pounced and Xander swung his
staff behind him like a club. It did not connect with the red
dragon, but it loosed a wave of black energy in its wake that at
once held Southernstar and sent bolts of energy striking across her
scales. Her roar of pain bounced off the walls, making the sound
even more terrible.

“Then let this place be your tomb,” Xander
muttered. He placed the tip of his staff to the floor and coalesced
a portion of his energy into a black matter ball. It was not very
big, but would be enough to destroy the library and all within
it.

He ran at Sane and lashed out at the sorcerer
with black tendrils. One batted Sane’s staff out of his hand while
each of the others grabbed a limb. The black grimoire fell at his
feet. When Xander was within a few feet of Sane he lifted him up
and the fifth tendril wrapped around the sorcerer’s throat. Xander
could drain him, but that would be too quick and not nearly painful
enough. Instead he squeezed at the sorcerer’s neck, causing him to
cough and wheeze.

The blue dragon roared in terror at the sight
of Xander’s black matter ball and ran towards it. Two more dragons
were coming in the library’s entrance.

Xander pointed his staff at the wall at the
top of the stairs and a flurry of black lightning strikes shattered
a whole in it as if the wall was made of clay instead of stone. He
pulled in Sane and whispered; “You should have sided with me,”
before flinging him down the stairs so that he landed near the
black ball that was now pulsating.

Xander aimed at the black grimoire that was
now at his feet and with a short blast of fire incinerated his old
grimoire. An orb of energy surrounded him and the necromancer
propelled himself out of the hastily made opening in the wall.

After a few seconds when he was certain that
he was out of the blast’s radius, Xander turned and watched as the
sound of an explosion shook the building and was immediately
followed by the walls crumbling and falling inward due to the
implosion.

Dragons flew towards the center of the
explosion from all directions, but none stopped to question the
little human who was flying close to the ground as he fled the
city. Xander took one last look as he left the city of dragons. He
would not be welcome here again. Then he reached into the small
pack that hung at his side and pulled out a rune that would take
him back to Aurelia and vanished.

The summoning failed… again.

It was the third such attempt in the last
week to reach the spirit of Xander Necros, leaving Alia with mixed
feelings about her failure. She found herself alternating between
disappointment at being able to call him forth and a slim hope that
he was still alive somewhere.

Her attempts were made in secret. It would
have been better for her to seek Riona’s council, being a master of
the summoning arts, but Alia could not bring herself to admit to
anyone that there was a part of her that refused to accept what she
was told. It somehow seemed weak or childish that she would grasp
on to this vain hope and did not want to show that side of herself
to anyone. Whenever Alia brought up how her father died Riona would
not look her in the eye. At first Riona would not speak of the
details at all and later only said that he was killed fighting
Kenzai. It may have been that it was a difficult memory for her to
relive, but it was enough to cause Alia to question the story given
to her. When pressed Tomlin had admitted to not seeing Xander die
personally and that only fed Alia’s paranoia about the subject.
Perhaps she was grasping at straws, but she had to try.

Ryonus would have said that her searching was
an unnecessary folly, if he had known. To him the world was painted
in black and white. He saw things only as they were and never as
they could be. Ryonus believed that Xander was dead, because a
trusted friend told him it was so and the fact that they were all
fleeing a battlefield reinforced that. Any belief to the contrary
would have been nothing more than the hopeful dreams of a sad woman
and Alia would not let him or anyone think such things about
her.

Telling Kaleb would have been cruel. He would
not understand why Alia wanted to see Xander and she did not wish
to try and explain her reasoning.

Only Tomlin was aware of what she was doing
and he kept an eye on her from a safe distance. He watched to make
sure that Alia did not accidentally pull forth anything unexpected,
a malevolent spirit or demon that might do her harm. When
attempting to pull a soul out of the underworld a magician always
ran the risk of helping something else out instead. Alia was overly
cautious in her summoning for that reason and perhaps that was why
success had eluded her, but maybe she was right and her father
still lived.

Alia met Tomlin who fell into step beside her
as she passed by the tree he had been lazing against. “It did not
go well,” he observed casually.

“It depends on what you consider ‘well,’”
said Alia. “We tried summoning Byrn’s spirit several times last
year as well with the same poor result.”

“Because he was not dead,” Tomlin finished
for her, knowing that the implication was that Xander could still
be alive too.

They fell silent as they entered back into
the town proper of Sallem, a small town just on the north side of
the Blackwood Forest that served as a natural barrier between the
kingdom’s northern, western, and southern regions. News of the
kingdom army’s victory over the Collective had spread like wildfire
across Aurelia and the common people were celebrating with
festivals in every city that Alia and her companions came to.
Seeing so many people cheering the defeat of her comrades in
taverns and even on the streets only served as a reminder of how
much magicians were hated, as if she needed one.