Shadow Mage (Blacklight Chronicles) (2 page)

Talis gasped, and opened his eyes in a panic. Master Grimelore stood towering over him. Talis somehow was lying on his back. The vision was true. Rikar was out there on that planet being tortured. An immense pressure fell over Talis’s chest until he felt suffocated, with a knowing that he had to help Rikar. But considering all the terrible things Rikar had done, and his choice to follow Aurellia, the dark lord who devastated the Temple of the Goddess Nacrea, Talis knew that helping Rikar was a bad idea.

But if he didn’t respond, if he ignored the call of Rikar and Aurellia, the shadows might rise up and overtake him, like the waves that washed over Onair and destroyed the city.

In the eerie grey and silver light, the dank subterranean room smelled of clay and ink and fish oil. Barrels of the nasty tasting oil were stacked randomly in the corner of the chamber. Talis arrived late again for his least favorite subject: Rune Magic with Mistress Cavares, one of the oldest and weirdest of the wizards of the Order. And his afternoon studies included two hours trapped here in this dungeon.
 

“Have you memorized Galarian yet?” Mistress Cavares didn’t even bother to look away from the tablet she was inscribing. She worked painfully slow inscribing the rune, as if one mistake could blow the whole room up.

Talis sighed. “My apologies, my lesson with Master Grimelore…ran longer than usual.”
 

She finished and started chewing on a roasted snake. Talis’s skin prickled at the crunching sound. She wiped her lips, but several shiny, green scales still stuck to the corners of her mouth.
 

“You must memorize both the language and the combinations.” Her long, claw-like fingernails were painted purple with green swirls. She inscribed four characters on the rune, and each glowed after she lifted her hands from the small oval-shaped clay tablet.

Mistress Cavares had forced Talis to learn many ancient and discarded languages, mold clay tablets, and cast spells over the rune inscription. The rune combinations and bindings and unravellings baffled Talis.
 

“You see here, I’m doing a double rune, in Galarian.” She studied his eyes. “What spell have I written and what is its level of power?”

“A double rune is the most powerful.” Talis paused a minute as he struggled to decipher the characters. “Falling and…slow? Slow fall?”

She didn’t even smile, although Talis knew he’d gotten it right. If he’d been wrong, she would have launched into another of her tirades about how incompetent he was.

“Mistress Cavares? Why do none of the other masters practice Rune Magic?”

She scoffed. “They’re impatient—like you—and lack the diligence to learn the combinations and memorize the languages. They feel runes are too indirect compared to elemental magic. What they fail to understand is the subtlety runes offer to the skilled wizard.”

“Like?”

“Have you ever heard of a magical ward?”

Talis shook his head.
 

“What in the world are they teaching students at the Order?” She sighed bitterly, and scraped a snake scale lodged between two yellowed teeth. “Do you want to remain ignorant your entire life?”

“I want to learn.” Talis felt his skin crawl in anger, but he kept calm.

“Do you really now?” Mistress Cavares narrowed her eyes, studying him. “You’ve learned so little… You’re heart’s just not in it. Why should I teach you a thing?”

Talis realized his heart hadn’t been in his studies. All this time he’d been spending with Mistress Cavares he’d been thinking of other things: his adventure, the Jiserians, the temple, and of course, Aurellia and Rikar. But had he really learned nothing? He looked down at the runes he’d inscribed the other day. Nothing perfect, but the knowledge of runes was slowly seeping in.

“But I have learned a lot.” Talis softened his voice as he stared into Mistress Cavares’s hard eyes. “Then again, perhaps my mind has been elsewhere. Ever since I’ve returned…it’s like a storm cloud lingering over me. I never know when the lightning will strike.”

“The war is over, child. At least that is what our astrologers tell us… Whatever power you summoned struck a vast blow against the Jiserian forces.”

“But their sorcerers still attack us. And the Order scorns me. House Lei despises my existence. They think I lured Mara away from them.”

Mistress Cavares shook her head and muttered to herself. “The Order… They hold much contempt for people that don’t fit their mold of what a wizard should be, myself included. No matter, now. Let us not think of such things. Are you truly sincere about learning?”

Talis held her gaze. “I am serious about learning. But…can I ever do more than just learn languages and inscribe characters? What’s this all for?”

“I have many secrets to teach. You could be the first apprentice who made it past this point. To possess the benefit of the ancient art of Rune Magic would grant you much power.” She waved her hand at the runes scattered across the table. “These are merely instruments used in combination with an even deeper magic. Do you have what it takes?”

He felt suddenly determined to conquer the art of runes, despite what the others in the Order had said. But he could tell by the skepticism in Mistress Cavares’s eyes that he’d have to prove himself.
 

“I will do more than try. I swear it upon the Goddess Nacrea—”

“Words, words… You’re all the same with your words and empty promises. I want proof.” She placed a three-character rune on the table. “Level of power and spell? Prove to me this knowledge you claim to possess.”

Talis felt a trickle of sweat drip along his neck. The spell was inscribed in the words of the ancients, the most complicated language from the descendants of the destroyed City of Urgar. “Three-character rune…middling power. But written in the ancient tongue makes it similar to the two-character rune drawn in Galarian.”

Mistress Cavares nodded her head. “Go on.”

Talis frowned, not knowing the first character. “This character”—Talis pointed at the middle one—“is the sun in full power.” The ancient language had three characters for the sun: rising, full, and falling. “The last character is…melting…or burning up?”

“And the first character?” Her face held the expression of someone who’s caught a thief.

“I won’t guess.” He scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know it.”

Mistress Cavares puckered up her lips. “That’s because I’ve never taught it to you. It means contained or more accurately…focused. To focus the power of the sun and melt something. Nasty little rune.”

How is it nasty if it just sits there and does nothing?
Talis thought.

“Now this rune you may have seen before.” She fingered a four-character rune.

“A weak rune but very specific in nature. It means trap the intruder with a web of shadows. What exactly does that mean?”

Crinkles formed around Mistress Cavares’s eyes. “Wouldn’t you like to know…” She waved the idea away. “Show me your abilities in casting. I’ve seen you work against those Jiserian sorcerers, so I know you have some skill as a wizard. But can you contain it in focused amounts?”

“What spell should I cast?”

“Do you know how to cast a binding spell?”

Talis shook his head.

“Bind one form to another. Bind an intention or thought to an object. You do know what that means?”

“In theory. But I’ve never practiced it.”

Mistress Cavares exhaled a hissing breath. “You blustering wizards, elemental magic…boom! All noise and hard power, but little internal strength. You’re all just surface deep.”

“Teach me. I want to learn the spell.”

“I’ll show you once. If you don’t get it, I won’t teach it to you again.”

“But that’s unfair!” Talis couldn’t believe she was being so unreasonable.

“Life is unfair. The universe is a hard, cruel place. Deal with it.” She raised a hand, aiming at a stone that lay on the table. “I will bind ice to this stone. It won’t be permanent, but it will last for a long time.”

She closed her eyes. “In my mind I see chunks of ice floating down a mountain stream. Thick piles of snow lay at either side. I feel the cold. It sinks into my bones. I can taste the chill as it rolls around on my tongue. With this complete sensation, I focus letting it flow from my mind, out my hands, and into the stone. Go!”

The stone spun around in circles. When it settled, frost slithered across the surface. Talis reached out and cautiously touched it. The stone was so cold Talis snapped his hand back in surprise.
 

“Now do it. Since you’ve master Fire Magic, imbue the same stone with heat. Your mind, your imagination. Bind to the stone.”

Talis concentrated on similar specific images: a blazing forest fire, the smell of roasted spiders, smoke in his eyes from huts burning, heat surging in his chest. He opened his eyes and released it all into the stone. The table sizzled and spat swirls of smoke from the heat of the stone. Mistress Cavares glared at Talis as if he were mad.
 

“Where do you draw that kind of power from? The black crystal?”

“It’s too far away.” Talis gestured towards the fire in the hearth. “Master Grimelore taught me to bring in power from flames. And what I saw in my mind was what I’ve experienced before.”

“Like the ancient tongue, close to the original source of truth.”

What did she mean by that? She was always talking in riddles.
 

“You’ve succeeded in casting your first binding spell. It will be easier now for you to progress. But be warned, binding is all about your thoughts and imagination…so control yourself. A lazy, untempered mind makes a dangerous combination with bindings.”

“What does this have to do with Rune Magic?”

“It’s time for your first lesson.” She motioned at the table. “The ancient art of casting magical wards.” As she lifted a rune, slivers of silver light spidered out of her fingers and into the rune. “A magical ward is created through the combination of a rune and a binding spell cast upon the object on which that rune is drawn.”
 

The light from her fingers grew stronger and bored into the characters etched on the rune. The clay tablet melted away into ash, and a faint glow of silver remained on the table. “The ward is locked onto the location where the rune lay. I’ve cast a Rune of Paralysis. The next person to touch this spot will be paralyzed. Care to try it?”

Talis shook his head and found himself stepping away from the table. He heard a meowing sound and glanced over just as Kalix, Mistress Cavares’s cat, sauntered across the table.

“No Kalix!” Mistress Cavares said, and scooped up the cat. “You know you’re not supposed to sneak inside my workshop.” She scratch the cat’s head and under his chin, and Kalix purred loudly.

Talis smiled and went to pet the cat, but his movement seemed to spook Kalix. In a sudden jerk, the cat leapt from Mistress Cavares’s arms, and landed directly on the spot where the rune was placed. Kalix froze like a stuffed animal, eyes frightened, tail pointing straight up, body as rigid as a stone sculpture.

“My poor kitty,” cried Mistress Cavares. She scrambled around Talis and held Kalix in her arms. “You must be more careful with Kalix, she spooks easily.”

“Is she dead?”

Mistress Cavares sighed like she’d had enough of teaching him. “Don’t you know what a Paralysis Spell does? It’s temporary. Kitty will be fine in an hour or so. This isn’t the first time he’s stepped on a ward. He has a nose for finding them. One day I fear he’ll step on the wrong ward….”

She stared into the fire, then sighed and lifted herself up. “Now it’s your turn, prove your ability to cast wards. Choose the runes, practice on the table. And please try and keep your power down to a minimum. I don’t want you blowing up the workshop.”

That afternoon Talis meandered towards the Temple of the Sun, thinking of magical wards. Could he set wards around the city to protect Naru? Did wards activate for anyone, or could you set them to go off only on enemies? Questions spun around in his head. He couldn’t believe he was actually looking forward to his next lesson with Mistress Cavares.