Magician Prince (35 page)

The dragon in human form looked at Sane
quizzically. After some quick estimating, he said, “You’re asking
about the crystals. At Southernstar’s speed I’d wager we could make
it there in a little over a week.”

“Our time is short. We are not far out from
Mollifas. Janus is likely back there by now and Xander is somewhere
preparing to attack the capital. I do not like the idea of leaving
those two to fight each other, but we have little choice.” Byrn put
on his black traveling cloak and was a bit sad to realize that it
and the clothes he wore were the only possessions he had and they
were the clothes that Xander happened to be wearing at the time of
the soul transfer.

Southernstar left to gather some fruits and
berries while Sane cooked up a rabbit he had caught earlier.
Southernstar was not adept at hunting in her human form and so
decided she could be the most help by gathering food that could not
run away from her.

Having nothing else to do while he waited and
rested, Byrn continued to read the pages that Sane had ripped from
Xander’s grimoire. The section immediately following the spell
contained some of the necromancer’s thoughts on immortality and the
other schools of magic. As Byrn read he learned that Xander’s was
not the only path to immortality. He made reference to a healer
that managed to extend his years and youthfulness by constantly
regenerating and reinvigorating his body’s tissue. There was an
elementalist that slowed his body’s aging by using ice magic to
nearly freeze himself. A grand enchantress used her power to
literally convince herself that she was young and beautiful and her
body actually responded to that in something that Xander referred
to as “an extreme case of mind over matter.” There were costs to
this kind of magic. The healer could not use his arts to help
anyone else. The elementalist aged slowly, but was slow to react to
stimuli from the world around him. The enchantress had to sacrifice
a beautiful virgin in order for the spell to have any significant
meaning and restore her own youth. He then went on to surmise that
it was possible for magicians of all disciplines to extend their
years, possibly without end, but that much of that lore had been
lost over time and the knowledge was owned by only a handful of
individuals like himself spread throughout the world. That got Byrn
to wondering if there was a way to restore Xander’s body to its
youth or at least its middle years to put them back on a more even
footing, but he quickly rejected the idea. If there were such a way
Xander would have used it himself.

“How many times do you think Xander has
switched bodies? How does he continue on with his life?” Byrn asked
Sane.

“Who can know?”

“In my case he is assuming my identity, but
that is because of my royal status. If he switches into a magically
gifted farmer, does he still take that person’s life or start a new
one all his own? He could have dozens of families that he has
raised as one man and then abandoned when he became another.” Alia
popped into his mind at that thought. Did she know what Xander had
done? She was Byrn’s love for a time. Perhaps she still was deep
down. Xander would surely end any sort of romance that Alia might
try to initiate. He hoped that Xander would not make Alia hate
him.

“Alia!” Sane shouted, breaking into Byrn’s
thoughts. The sorcerer’s good eye was distant as he looked through
Byrn. For a moment Sane seemed like he was miles away, but suddenly
his head shook and he looked around for someone. When his eye
caught sight of Byrn again he said, “Alia and Avelice are in
danger. We must hurry if we wish to help them!” Sane began running
into the woods near their camp without looking back to see if Byrn
followed, but he did. He would not allow Alia or his daughter to
come to harm.

Shouts of defiance echoed through the forest
as Byrn followed as closely as he could. Sane was probably twenty
years Byrn’s junior now and neither of them was a newborn chick.
However, both were masters of the physical manipulation magic and
strengthened their own brittle bones and weary bodies as they ran
towards the sounds of fighting. It was Alia’s voice that carried to
them. She was never one to play the damsel in distress even when it
seemed the whole world was against her.

Southernstar joined them in their pursuit and
still wore her human form to navigate through the dense foliage.
Sane never called to her, but she showed up after only a minute and
the sorcerer did not look at all surprised to see her rushing to
his side. She quickly came to match the pace that Sane set
effortlessly and Byrn guessed that she would be able to leave them
all in a trail of dust if she had a mind to.

A single clang of steel on steel followed by
a boy’s sharp cry came to Byrn on the wind and he quickened his
pace if that was even possible. He had hoped that the boy would
find his way clear of the Collective, but it seemed that Kaleb was
not so lucky.

Byrn tossed a ball of fire at someone’s back
when the attackers first came into view, pausing only for a second
to confirm that the man he was targeting was not Alia or Kaleb. His
aim at a run was a little off, but he succeeded in drawing the
group’s attention away from Alia and Kaleb. The boy was lying on
the ground and Alia knelt over him with a shield of protection cast
in front of them. When the man who was almost hit by Byrn’s
fireball turned he saw that it was Ryonus. Two magicians fled
immediately and were followed by Ryonus and two others a moment
later. A baby crying came from one of the magicians in the lead.
“Stay with them!” Byrn shouted to the others and went in pursuit of
the kidnappers alone.

Murderous rage filled him for an instant and
he lashed out at Ryonus with a wave of flame that cascaded over the
other man’s shield, but did no harm. Ryonus braced himself and let
loose a weak lightning strike that did little more than force Byrn
off course and put him in line with another magician that Byrn was
less familiar with, but he recognized him as one of the
Collective’s masters. The second held a grimoire out toward Byrn
like a weapon and shouted, “Darkness!” At his command the world
went black before Byrn’s eyes and he knew the man to be an
enchanter. He abruptly stopped in his pursuit and created a Moran’s
Circle of wind magic to flow around him in protection. It would
take him a minute to forcibly end the blindness spell and the
Circle would protect him from further attacks during that time.

A sudden scream of pain was cut short and
subsequently followed by another brief clash of steel. “Quickly,
you must save the baby.” The voice belonged to Tomlin.

“Stop! You idiot!” demanded Ryonus. His
command was followed by another clash of weapons and a dull thud.
Then he said, “Your loyalty is misplaced. Xander only wants to help
Alia whether she realizes it or not.”

Byrn’s vision cleared in time to see Ryonus
standing over Tomlin with the steel tip of his staff hovered just
above the young man’s chest. “So what are you going to do: kill me
or stop your friend from taking back Avelice?” Tomlin asked,
sounding smug for someone at the wrong end of a spear point.

Ryonus looked ahead to one of the magicians
that had been allied with him who now seemed to be in hot pursuit
of the two escaping with Avelice, then back to Tomlin. Ryonus
grudgingly left Tomlin and ran after the other magician.

The Moran’s Circle shifted into a wall of
wind that Byrn through into Ryonus’ back and tossed him to the
ground where he smacked his head and did not get back up. It
quickly became apparent what had just happened. He did not know
where Tomlin came from, but he killed the other enchanter before
anyone knew he was there with a knife in the back. Then he muddled
the third magician’s mind and sent him off to rescue Avelice. After
a brief clash with Ryonus, Tomlin was bested, but the
manipulationist had to leave before finishing him so that he could
stop the confused magician that Tomlin had “recruited.” The entire
exchange took place in less than the half minute it took Byrn to
dispel the darkness cast over him.

There was no time for greeting as Byrn and
Tomlin went off in pursuit of Avelice’s kidnappers who had a
considerable lead and were already out of sight. Byrn stretched his
senses to their limit to find the resonance of the kidnappers’ body
heat and found them just at the edge of his outermost limits. One
of them was moving away very quickly while another was engaged in a
contest with the magician under Tomlin’s spell. They made it over
the next hill just in time to see one of the men kill the other
with a tunnel of flame that burrowed into his opponent with all of
the force of a battering ram. “That is Michal Firemas, formerly of
Baj,” Tomlin told him without being asked. “He is not to be taken
lightly.”

“Will he listen to me?” Byrn asked.

“If you mean would he listen to Xander, then
yes, but there are a handful of magicians that know about your body
swap and he is one of them. I’d expect that he would be itching for
a fight with the magician believed to be the most powerful fire
user in the kingdom.”

“Then go and rescue Avelice. I’ll handle this
one.”

Tomlin nodded and started to run, but stopped
for a moment. He turned and said, “Riona is taking Avelice to
Xander, though I am not sure what he wants with her. He plans to
take the royal castle this morning and force the assembled noble
representatives there to acknowledge him as king. If I can get
Avelice back before Riona reaches Xander, then I will double back.
Otherwise I will continue to follow her into the lion’s den and
take Avelice when the opportunity presents itself.”

“Go,” Byrn told him with a nod and Tomlin did
as he was told. Byrn wanted to thank Tomlin for his aid, but they
did not have the time. Michal was already closing in.

Michal greeted Byrn with an opening cascade
of fireballs. All of the running and short confrontation with
Ryonus had taken its toll on Byrn, but he managed to cast a shield
and deflect the attack with little effort. Let this man think that
Byrn needed to fear fire magic. He answered with a single larger
fireball that would have burned the flesh from Michal’s bones, but
the other fire wielder was able to take control of the flame and
turned it against Byrn. He had expected Michal to stop the attack
or else he would not have used such a powerful spell against a
single opponent, but Byrn wanted to know just how his opponent
would stop it. There were any number of things that Michal could
have done and every counter would have revealed something about his
strengths and weaknesses. A magical barrier or a speedy dash out of
the way would have revealed that the man had some skill with
physical manipulation. Countering the fire with water would have
shown that he was proficient in the other elements. Instead Michal
chose to reveal little about himself by relying on his fire magic
to reverse Byrn’s spell. However, he did reveal something…

The fireball crashed into Byrn and drove him
to his knees through the force of the impact. The fire spread over
his clothes and across the ground around him, catching in the trees
and the underbrush. He coughed on the smoke that filled his lungs
and even though he did not look up he was aware of the other fire
magician’s approach.

The impact of another fire blast kept Byrn
from getting to his feet and seeing victory at hand, Michal cut the
distance between them fearlessly. He sauntered to within an arm’s
length of Byrn, stopping so that Byrn’s eyes rested on his feet.
“That old body must be wearing thin. The magicians of your inner
circle spoke about you with such admiration. I had hoped for a more
exciting battle.”

“You are not the only one disappointed,” Byrn
exhaled the words and dug his fingers into the dirt. The earth
trembled briefly before a volcano of dirt erupted from underneath
Michal, causing his feet to stammer. He tried to shout his
surprise, but dirt filled his mouth as it changed direction and
what had been flying outward was now streaming back to cover the
fire magician. Byrn leapt to his feet and ripped Michal’s grimoire
from his hand in one fluid motion before flinging it some distance
away. Soil caked Michal and bent him low as more of the black earth
pinned him into a position that was halfway between crouching and
standing before the mounds ceased their attack. Michal’s face and
head were left uncovered and the man spit out as much of the dirt
that he could. “As a true master of fire, you should know that
flame attacks would have little effect on me. In fact, they are
completely ineffective. I could have stood through your assaults,
but allowing you to draw in close so that I could easily disarm you
seemed like a better alternative.” Byrn traced the Kenzai rune into
the dirt with his finger, imbuing it with magic to strengthen it
causing it to glow brightly as it quickly ate away at Michal’s
magic. “And that should keep you out of my way for a while.” Byrn
stepped back a few feet so that the rune would not drain him as
well.

He felt the ebb and flow of body heat in
search of Avelice or Tomlin. Tomlin was at the very edge of his
senses and true to his word was headed in the general direction of
Mollifas. Avelice and her captor were beyond his limits. Behind him
were four heat signatures. Three burned brightly while the fourth
was vital, but dimmer indicating an older person; Sane. Byrn turned
his attention back to Michal. “Why does Xander want my
daughter?”

“Don’t know. Don’t really care,” answered the
dirty man. It was clear he would be giving no more information than
that without some coercion.

“Alia is on her way,” said Byrn callously,
“and I have to imagine that she is mightily pissed right about now
what with her daughter being kidnapped. Have you ever seen her in a
bad mood?”