Shadow Mage (Blacklight Chronicles) (13 page)

 
He realized he had no empty rune tablets.

“I’m so stupid! How could’ve I left all my empty runes inside the workshop upstairs?” He lifted the gold inscribing tool that Palarian had left.

Nikulo sighed, and tapped the side of his head. “Just open a portal to Mistress Cavares’s workshop, and be quick about it! You do have lots of portal runes, right?”

Talis nodded, and bent down to place the rune. He cast the binding spell, pictured Mistress Cavaves’s workshop, and without looking at Nikulo, stepped once and entered the portal.

Instead of being dark, flickering shadows danced off the stone walls of her chambers, halos of candlelight scattered throughout the room. Mistress Cavares sat on her old leather chair, gazing into the crackling fire.

“I knew you’d come back. Forget something?” She jerked her head towards the worktable.

“They obliterated the Temple of the Sun. Why would the Order do that?”

Master Grimelore cleared his throat, and joined Master Jai to saunter over to the fireside. Their eyes were kind and fierce as they stared at Talis.

Mistress Cavares exhaled sharply. “The other wizards aren’t in the Order anymore. We’re all that’s left. Those traitors…hungry for power and influence. Willing to sacrifice our king, claiming devilish deeds are justified in the name of seeking peace? Nonsense.”

“The Jiserians are above….”

“Let them come! I pity the poor fool who tries to enter these chambers. I fear not our enemies.” She glanced at Talis. “Don’t worry, they won’t destroy our beautiful city. Viceroy Lei has assured us of that…once the king is dead and he’s named supreme ruler.”

“But where will you go? You can’t stay here forever.” Talis handed her a portal rune. “Here, take this.”

A smiled curled up the corner’s of her lips, and she coughed a chuckle. “So kind, boy, you were always kind. If only the others were more like you, we’d live in a different world. Where kindness not cruelty reigned. Will we find this world someday?”

She pushed herself up, and clapped her hands together. “Time is short. You’re leaving us, are you not? I see it’s true. Well, before you go, I’ve packed supplies for you, and brought you your father’s sword. And Master Grimelore has something for you.”

Talis accepted the backpack and his sword, and bowed deeply to Mistress Cavares. “Thank you for remembering me.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of something inside the fire in the hearth. Talis swore he glimpsed Rikar’s tortured face screaming. But when he looked again, there was nothing.

“Is everything all right, young master? Did the flames show you something?” Master Grimelore was somehow now standing next to Talis, his hand on his shoulder. “The flames can be cruel sometimes, take what you see with a good portion of doubt.”

Talis glanced up, studying the wrinkles spread across Master Grimelore’s forehead. How he had aged so quickly….
 

“It’s all too much…but I know I’ve got to keep moving on. So much depends on me, I know that now.”

“We’ll manage here, somehow, don’t fret about that.” Master Grimelore removed a honed clear crystal from a leather satchel. “You’ll need this where you’re going. It’s simply a shard, found in the Akesian Mountains many years ago, but it will bring you much needed power.”

Talis bowed, and received the shard from Master Grimelore. The energy within felt clear and cool and sharp like hundreds of needle pricks on your hand.
 

“The black crystal has cracked and splintered.” Talis studied Master Jai. “The hated crystal will most likely shatter if I successfully cast the World’s Portal spell.”

“You must find a new crystal, young master.” Master Jai strode forward and took Talis’s hands. “Our city and your family depend upon that. Without it we are vulnerable.”

“I will try.”

Mistress Cavares motioned Talis off towards the north. “You must go. Return to us, with your friends safe. And if you can, bring us a new crystal, whatever the gods deem for us, we will accept this time.”

Talis bowed, and ran over to the worktable and scooped up several handfuls of empty rune tablets. He glanced one last time at his masters, placed the portal rune and cast the binding.

He caught Nikulo’s eyes as soon as he stepped through the portal. A line of sweat dripped down his friend’s brow. “I thought you might not make it back.”

After Talis spread nine empty runes onto the stone block, he placed four on each cardinal direction, and one in the center, and four below it. He grasped the gold inscribing tool, and began with the first rune for the northern direction. Nikulo helped point out the right location on the first scroll, and then they moved on to the south, the west, and the east. The scrolls only validated what Talis already memorized.

Another hideous crack, louder and booming this time, snapped across the chamber.

“We’ve got to hurry,” Nikulo whispered, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

Talis shook his head. “Doing this right will keep us from being obliterated by a miscast spell.”

The World’s Portal rune characters were the most archaic of them all, and Talis had selected a larger rune tablet for the spell. At last he carefully inscribed the four destination runes, and sighed, inspecting his work.

“Is it ready?” Nikulo peered over to study the runes. “They look really similar the other runes Palarian had— I can’t tell the difference.”

“Okay…let’s begin.” Talis started by casting the bindings for the cardinal directions, remembering to picture opposite directions for each rune.
 

Enormous cracks and splintering sounded from within the black crystal. Talis was about to glance back, but he kept himself from looking. He raised himself up and stared at the five runes assembled before him. The cardinal runes had turned to blue flame etched on the stone floor.

Talis quickly looked at Nikulo, and after his friend smiled and nodded, took once last look at the four destination runes. He closed his eyes and cast the final bindings, holding a clear image of the archaic characters.

In his mind’s eye he saw darkness flashing over a silver-grey sea, undulating across an endless horizon. Clawed hands reached out to grasp Talis, hands to choke, hands to scratch. Then a fire spread across a desolate plain, building up higher and higher until it was a wall covering the sky. The dry, flaky earth crumbled upon itself, and broke away into the blackness underneath.

And the wind poured hard, striking Talis with a force so strong it stretched back the skin on his face and caused his eyes to water. When he opened his eyes he saw the World’s Portal open and churning and tearing, like wild dogs ripping flesh.
 

The black crystal shattered in a brilliant explosion of light and darkness, millions of pieces smashed back by the force of the wind rushing through the portal. Nikulo clenched Talis’s arm and yanked him forward, limping, dragging, then crawling inside.

Talis inhaled and stared up at the grey misty sky.
 

The air smelled like smoke and cinnamon.

Charna raised her elegant head and sniffed the warm air, her nose twitching. The lynx’s golden eyes, deep and filled with wisdom, gazed at Talis. Then her tail twitched and she turned and leaned forward as if prey lay somewhere out past the bleak rocky landscape.
 

There were no trees, no grass, no life that Talis could see. The air was thick with smoke, and indeed smelled strangely of cinnamon. Nikulo stood and dusted himself off, bending down and inspecting claw marks on a stone marker with a gold pyramidal cap.

“The portal destination rune characters are here.” Nikulo scanned the ground. “Prints…scuffling of boots. See here, these must be the sorcerer’s, and here, something dragged…Mara’s cocoon? I think we’ve done it!”

Talis was lost in thought as he squinted staring over the horizon. How long had it been since Mara and the sorcerer had gone through the portal? Perhaps an hour, maybe less. Could they catch up to them?

“Over here, he’s freed Mara.” Nikulo held up a piece of the now dried and cracked cocoon. “You ready? The tracks lead this way.”

Talis didn’t feel ready, he felt this foreign world was filled with dark creatures lurking behind the smoky air, but he followed Nikulo anyways as he waddled down the rocky ledge.
 

“At least it’s not cold here… All I brought was my backpack with a few things and the Tandria Scroll.”

“I know you don’t have any food inside there…and you ate everything back at the temple,” Talis said.

“I can’t help it I’m always hungry.” Nikulo motioned to Talis’s backpack. “Anything good to eat in there?”

“Not sure…Mistress Cavares brought me my backpack and gave me this.” Talis swung his pack around and displayed the crystal shard. “Should come in handy.”

“Crystals don’t taste good. What else is in there?”

Talis rummaged around inside the pack, then jumped as he noticed a rock moving on the ground.

“What’s that?” He scurried aside and bent down to inspect the rock.

“A shell.” Nikulo poked it. “Camouflaged.”

“Do we dare turn it over?” Talis shuddered to think what kind of creatures were on this world. So far the bleakness had made him think of the Underworld….
 

Nikulo flipped the creature over with a rock. The soft pink underbelly undulated with hundreds of disgusting, writhing feet.

“It’s like an insect of some kind.”

“I wonder if it tastes any good.” Nikulo smacked his lips, and snorted. “Spare a little Fire Magic for roasting an ugly bug?”

“If you’re really that desperate, then sure why not.” Talis scoffed, releasing a slithering flame from his fingertips and let it toast the hideous insect. A high-pitched scream poured out from the creature.

“Noisy little bugger.” Nikulo drooled as he watched Talis roast the bug.

Out of the corner of his eye, Talis noticed the ground shifting and swaying. He stopped the flames. Squinting, he spotted hundreds of the same insects crawling towards them.

“Umm…this can’t be good.”

“What?” Nikulo glanced at Talis.

Talis jabbed a finger at the creatures as he started stepping backwards. “As in we better get out of here fast. I don’t think his buddies liked us roasting him.”

Nikulo grabbed the roasted bug, and they turned and ran down the hill. “I hope it tastes good, at least.”

Talis sent Nikulo a look of disgust. He had to be crazy to even think about eating that thing. After running for ten minutes or so down the flat, sloping rocks, the mist opened up a bit and Talis could see green shrubbery and hints of a forest far off in the distance. He sighed. At least they were on a world with some green and hopefully life other than camouflaged insects.
 

“Can we take a rest?” Nikulo huffed and coughed and bent over, pressing his hands onto his legs.
 
“I’m not used to all this running.”

“You might have at least practiced your sparring in the training arena.” Talis sniffed, and grinned at Nikulo. “Just because you lost your partner doesn’t mean you have to get out of shape.”

“Hey, I was busy….”

Talis chortled at that. “Busy drinking ale and eating roasted pork at the Wretched Farce?”

Nikulo twisted up his nose. “How’d you know I went there?”

“You crack horrible jokes, get far too drunk, and generally make an arse of yourself.”

“So you went there as well, then? Hmph. Should’ve figured so much. You’re probably the one brooding in the corner.” Nikulo lifted the roasted insect, and scooped out some of the fleshy insides with his dagger. He chewed hesitantly, then his face brightened, and he nodded. “It’s not bad at all, a bit chewy, though. You’ve quite a skill at roasting, not too burnt…and just bloody enough. Exactly how I like it.”

Talis dropped his head and shook it from side to side. What was he going to do with him? “That’s so disgusting, I can’t fathom how you’re eating that…thing.”

“You’ve seen me hungry…you don’t want me grumpy, right?”

Talis lifted his hands in a gestured of surrender. Then he scanned the ground. The tracks! They’d fled from the horde of insects and forgotten to scan for tracks. Talis slapped his forehead.

“What? Something wrong?” Nikulo tried crunching on the insect’s shell and made a sour face. “This part is no good.” He spat it out.

“We forgot to follow Mara’s tracks!”

Nikulo glanced around, then bent down and farted. Talis backed up, waving away the smell. Gods, he smelled worse than the roasted bug looked!

“You search that way, and I’ll look over here,” Nikulo said. “We can’t be too far off, didn’t we run in the direction their tracks led?”

Talis ran his fingers through the sandy soil, and nodded. “But no more than five minutes, and come back. We can’t afford to separate.”

As Talis trekked off, searching for tracks, he spotted a weird animal scampering between two bushes, like rabbit with an over-sized bottom. Charna crept low and stalked the rabbit, and Talis reached for his bow but realized he didn’t have one. He slung around his backpack instead, and opened it.