Shadow Mage (Blacklight Chronicles) (3 page)

The Temple of the Sun looked aged and weathered perched atop the newly created hillside, formed at the planting of the black crystal. Although it was only six months old, the temple complex seemed as if it had been there for hundreds of years. Flowers and grass blossomed all around, particularly around the black oak tree. The spring still nurtured the meadows and gardens around the temple.

Talis took a drink of the water and relished the sweet taste. As he stared up at the wooden temple, scenes of the old temple complex and the Goddess Nacrea played in his head. How he missed the Goddess. Her power and beauty and light. Would he ever see her again?

The City of Naru stood as a shadow lingering in the background, but sunbeams shone on the temple. Even when it stormed outside, sun always seemed to strike the temple, bathing it in radiant light.

Talis turned and spied Nikulo climbing the hillside. They clasped arms. “She’s a beautiful temple,” Nikulo said.

“I haven’t seen you in ages…thought you’d abandoned me like the rest.”

Nikulo chuckled. “Maybe I should’ve. You dragged us to the ends of the earth. And poor Rikar. Where is he now?”

The vision flashed in Talis’s mind for a second. He sat, seeing Rikar’s sad eyes staring at him.

“You alright?”
 

“Sorry, I was remembering a vision I had yesterday in the swamplands. I heard Rikar calling out to me, calling for help. He was trapped inside a storm filled with tortured faces. What’s a vision like that supposed to mean?”

Nikulo shrugged and sat next to him. “How did the vision start?”

“The Surineda Map glowed and I touched it—Mara saw it too—the map showed us another world far away in the stars. I think he’s out there, on that world.” Talis glanced at Nikulo. “Rikar’s in trouble.”

Nikulo waved the idea away. “Trouble, indeed. He made the wrong choice the moment he decided to follow that sorcerer. But enough talk of our
old friend
. There was a reason I came to visit you. Do you remember the scroll I stole from Aurellia?”

Talis felt suddenly dizzy.
The scroll,
Rikar had said. “What about it?”
 

“I studied the Tandria Scroll for months after we returned. Hours and hours of translations. I finally discovered a poison spell written within and mastered it after weeks of study. But I ignored the other parts unrelated to Poison Magic. I left the scroll alone for awhile, but a few weeks ago, I found something.”

“This is just too bizarre….”
 

“What?”

“Rikar told me in the vision that the scroll you stole from Aurellia was important.”

Nikulo’s face paled.
 

“What is it?” Talis said.

“Aurellia must have told him about the scroll. Why would he do that?”

“He’s a master of deception. Perhaps he wanted you to find it. Think about it, he was leaving anyways.” Talis thought a moment, then stared at Nikulo. “How did you find the scroll out of all the ones in his library?”
 

Nikulo looked nervous, as if he was caught in a lie. “I…I had visions of Aurellia before we reached Darkov.”

“When? But you never told us a thing!” Talis couldn’t believe Nikulo had kept it from him.

“He kept telling me about all he could teach me, about mind control and poisons…all the things I’m interested in.” Nikulo sighed and stared out over the Nalgoran Desert. “If we figure out how to decipher the characters on the scroll, we’ll gain a rare spell. The true discovery inside the Tandria Scroll…is the knowledge of casting portal spells.”

“Are you serious? A portal spell? So we could travel anywhere we wanted?”

Nikulo grinned. “Can you imagine?” He unfurled the Tandria Scroll, and tapped a finger on a part littered with archaic illustrations. “See…here are the portals. Going through walls, across rivers, to tall peaks. This looks like a summoning portal…calling someone to you.”

“And what about this?” Talis pointed at an illustration of two figures aiming at a portal.

“This seems like the lead sorcerer…maybe bringing someone
along
with you through the portal? I don’t understand all this.”
 

Nikulo eyed cakes Talis’s mother had packed for him in the morning before he’d left for the temple. “Are those apple tarts?”

“Pay attention! I thought you’ve been studying the scroll for months?”

Nikulo grunted at the cakes. “Just one?”

Talis rolled his eyes. Nikulo’s stomach was always more active than his brain. “So what don’t you understand about the scroll?”

“The language constantly changes…characters I don’t know.” Nikulo crammed the cake into his mouth. “I wink I unwerstand awout walf of it.”
 

“Can you not talk with your mouth stuffed with cakes?” Talis shuddered at the pieces dribbling from Nikulo’s mouth. “I think I know just the person to help us with this.” Mistress Cavares. If there was anyone in Naru who knew how to translate archaic characters, she would.

Nikulo swallowed and drank from the spring. “Can you trust her? This is all Shadow and Poison Magic. You know it’s banned by the Order.”

He had a good point. Even though Mistress Cavares was considered eccentric to most wizards of the Order, she still adhered to its principles. And that included a strict forbidding of Shadow Magic.

“Maybe there is a way…without her seeing the Tandria Scroll.”

Nikulo scrunched up his face and bent over like he had stomach pains. Talis stepped back, scared of what might happen. Toxic fumes. Nikulo waved a hand. “False alarm… So what’s your idea?”

Talis led Nikulo to a side room in the temple where he often studied. A worktable contained hundreds of completed runes, blocks of clay, inscribers tools, and countless scrolls on Rune Magic. Nikulo picked up a scroll and frowned.

“What’s all this?”

“Rune Magic.”

Nikulo coughed. “Why are you spending your time learning this junk?”

Talis placed a rune—inscribed with the Praellic symbol for singing and one for a bird—on a chair next to the table. He cast a binding spell on the rune and it melted away.

“Go ahead, sit.”

“What? Am I some kind of experiment?” Nikulo glanced suspiciously at the chair.

“Are you afraid of a little worthless rune spell?” Talis made a face daring Nikulo to try.

Nikulo frowned and placed a hand on the chair, then slowly sat. Soon, with fear spreading across his face, he started singing a horrific rendition of “The Barkeep’s Plump Daughter” in a falsetto voice. Talis laughed as Nikulo’s eyes got wider. Nikulo tried to put a hand to his mouth, but couldn’t stop singing.

He finally finished, but by now Talis cried with laughter, rolling on the ground.
 

“You!” Nikulo shouted, his face red. “How could you do that? You’re really lucky I’m a good singer….”

“You’re a terrible singer!” Talis chuckled, shaking his head. “Don’t ever try and become a bard. A comedian, yes, but never a bard.”

“So the point of this is what? Runes can make people sing?”

“What’s going on in here?” Mara said, peeking inside the room. “Was that a monkey dying?”

“Saved by the beautiful and charming Mara.” Nikulo smiled and bowed low. “Talis has been giving a poor demonstration on the value of Rune Magic.”

“Rune Magic?” Mara strode over to the table and inspected the clay tablets.

Talis told her about studying with Mistress Cavares, and Nikulo chimed in with the story about the Tandria Scroll. Mara’s face darkened as Nikulo told the parts about Shadow Magic.

“So what mother has been saying about you is true? The black crystal is infecting your mind? Why are you studying dark magic?” Mara glared at Talis. “I thought you were a student of Light Magic?”

Nikulo put a hand on Mara’s shoulder. “Talis isn’t studying this… I only showed him the Tandria Scroll just now.”

“Well then, why are
you
learning it?” She shook his hand off her shoulder and stepped back defensively.

“It’s just what I do.” Nikulo shrugged. “I used to be ashamed of studying Poison Magic, but since our trip…I feel it’s okay. It’s just another kind of magic. Right?”

Mara frowned and stared at the wooden shrine at the end of the room. “Like light and darkness, death and life… Just another—” She shook her head. “Now I’m all confused. I don’t know….”

“What about this?” Talis took a pen, dipped it in an inkwell, and drew on a piece of vellum paper. “Here is light and here is darkness on the other side. Above could be poison and below could be healing energy. Maybe the reason why Nikulo is curious about Poison Magic is because it’s the opposite of healing.”

Nikulo nodded. “And the Shadow Magic portions of the Tandria Scroll, although I’m not interested in them, I thought Talis might find them of use, especially because you’ve master Light Magic.”

“You do realize,” Mara studied Talis, “that if you continue in the direction you’re heading, you’ll be declared an enemy of your own magical Order? Do you want that?”

“Not to mention Mara’s parents,” Nikulo said.

Talis scoffed. “They hate me already. Learning a forbidden art won’t change that. But listen, this is different.” He tapped the Tandria Scroll. “The knowledge within here can teach us how to cast portals! The Order can’t teach us that—”

“They can teach us to fly.”

“Master Jai refuses to teach me the spell. All the wizards shun me except Mistress Cavares and Master Grimelore. Even the Goddess Nacrea summoned a portal! If Shadow Magic can teach us that, and the Goddess uses similar magic, how can it be all bad?”

Mara looked unconvinced, so Talis tried a different approach. “Just imagine…we could go anywhere in the world we wanted… We could see each other without worrying who was watching us.”

“I could get sweets in the middle of the night.” Nikulo burped and reached for the last cake.

“Be serious!” Mara rolled her eyes. “Okay, I admit, casting portals would be amazing. If nothing but for not having to sneak around, that would be worthwhile. And speaking of which, I have to go back home before my parents discover I’m missing. Just do what you have to do…I won’t judge you…until you start sprouting demon’s horns. Then maybe I might have to kill you.”

“Besides, who knows how long it will take us to figure out the portal spell?” Talis said.

Mara shrugged and said goodbye to them. “Might be awhile before I see you two… I’m sure I’ll end up banned from leaving my house. Mother was furious when she found out we went hunting.”

Talis waved at Mara as she left the temple, wondering if they really could master the portal spell. He glanced at the Tandria Scroll, recognizing a few of the characters similar to the runes. Maybe the answer
could
be found with Mistress Cavares after all.

“There are many uses for runes beyond what I’ve taught you.” Mistress Cavares studied Talis with her chilly blue eyes. “Tell me, what did you struggle with the most when you were first trying to do magic?”

Talis sighed, remembering all his failed attempts. “I was terrible…I couldn’t do any magic for several years. In training dreams I could do it, but nowhere else.”

“That’s not uncommon. Students often fail at the mental concentration needed to bring the magic into focus…to produce for the first time. Often an emotional event is needed.”

“When we were attacked by the Jiserians, that’s when I first did magic.”

Mistress Cavares nodded slowly, as if digesting his words. “Had you studied Rune Magic, you would have cast magic much sooner.”

“Why is that?” Talis would have done anything at first to create magic. His first years studying at the Order of the Dawn were completely frustrating.

“With runes the magic is focused through the inscription and locked in with magical intent. Casting unaided magic is much more difficult. It’s a miracle the Order produces as many wizards as we do—which is not enough—but still, we could produce even more with the aid of runes, especially for those apprentices that fail to cast straightaway.”

If Talis was going to succeed in learning the portal spell, he knew he had to gain mastery over the languages needed for Rune Magic. And only Mistress Cavares could help him with that.
 

“Why are there no books to learn the ancient languages needed for runes?”

A wry smile crossed Mistress Cavares’s face. “The danger is too great. The languages needed for runes can only be taught from master to student.” She glanced at the rune Talis was inscribing. “I see you’re learning your languages…quite an improvement. No, no, that’s not the right combination. Second Kingdom with the Fourth Kingdom, fire and wind makes an inferno…yes, that’s right.”

How Talis learned languages from Mistress Cavares involved writing on sand and erasing the characters quickly. You either succeeded or failed the lesson. Talis had a doubly difficult task. The night before, he’d memorized all the characters from the first portal spell in the Tandria Scroll. He hoped Mistress Cavares would teach him a few of the characters so he could fill in the missing pieces.
 

“How would one go about creating a whirlwind?” Talis stared at her innocently. From the drawings on the Tandria Scroll, he thought perhaps a portal might be drawn similarly to a whirlwind.