The Mage's Grave Read online

  Chapter Five

  A few minutes prior to the tremors …

  Darek and Aorja sat on either side of Jiku's bed, looking at their friend, who still lay unconscious in the medical wing of the Arcanium. He lay underneath heavy blankets, which were white as snow, with the sheets pulled up to his chin. His chest rose and fell under the blankets, a sign he was breathing, that he was still alive, that he would survive.

  It had only been minutes ago that Eyurna, the head panamancer and doctor of the medical wing, declared that Yorak's magic had done the job and that Jiku was indeed going to be fine as long as he got enough rest. She had allowed Darek and Aorja to stay by his side because they were his friends and because she had some other work to attend to that was more urgent.

  Neither Darek nor Aorja had spoken much since then. They had been too busy worrying about Jiku, although Darek had from time to time occasionally wondered who had started the explosion and whether the other mages had yet found any clues pointing to the identity of the bomber. For that matter, he wondered how the Magical Superior's interrogation of the two intruders was going.

  So much has happened just within the last hour, Darek thought. I wonder what it all means.

  Mom had stayed just long enough to make sure that Eyurna was going to confirm Jiku's health. Then she left, telling him and Aorja that she was going to go see the progress of the other mages. She said she would be back if she had any news, but since that had been about ten minutes ago already, Darek assumed that she was probably not going to return any time soon.

  Darek looked around the medical wing again, just to get his mind off the stressful events of the day. It was a long room with about two dozen beds on each side, with tall, curtained windows between each bed. The ceiling and floor were white, while the curtains had flowery designs that were supposed to calm the patients. Eyurna's office was located at the end of the room, while thick chandeliers hanging from the ceiling illuminated the place during the night. Currently, the open windows offered an excellent amount of daytime illumination, the sunlight reflecting off the white sheets, but not in a way that hurt Darek's eyes.

  Then he looked at Aorja. She had her guitar at her side, but it was still inside its case. She had said she was going to play it the minute Jiku woke up, but she looked so worried about his health that it seemed unlikely that she would remember to do that even if Jiku awoke soon.

  That wasn't surprising. Aorja was always worrying about him and Jiku and their other friends. She wasn't training to be a panamancer—she always said that she couldn't handle working with sick people all the time—but she was so compassionate that she might as well have been one.

  I'm glad we're friends, Darek thought. Me, Jiku, and Aorja. It certainly makes it easier to handle events like what happened today.

  At that moment, his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door to the medical wing opening and closing. He looked in the direction of the door and almost started when he saw who was walking up the path between the beds.

  It was two of the Institute students. One was manta-like in appearance, with thick goggles strapped over his eyes and an armband wrapped around his right arm, which had a glowing green stone in it. He walked extremely awkwardly, lifting his feet too high and bringing them down too fast, which made him look like he was stomping. He seemed unused to walking on land, which made sense, seeing as the Undersea Institute was located underwater.

  The other student had a goldfish-like head and a deep black stone embedded in the anklet on her left ankle. Unlike her fellow student, she walked across the stone floor with ease, though as she sometimes almost tripped, it was pretty clear that she was not exactly used to walking on land, either.

  Of the two, the goldfish-headed one looked the most familiar to Darek. He remembered that she was called Auratus, the silent pupil of the Grand Magus Yorak. What these two were doing here, Darek didn't know, although neither of them appeared hostile.

  Still, he stood up when they approached and said, “Hello. What are you two doing here?”

  Auratus said nothing, but the manta-like mage said, in broken Divina, “Here to see student. Want to make sure he is okay.”

  “Oh, he's going to be fine,” said Aorja, brushing her long blonde hair out of her eyes. “He just needs rest is all. It's thanks to your headmistress, actually, that he's going to be okay.”

  “That's good,” said the Institute mage. “Grand Magus very smart and talented. Of course.”

  He said that with obvious pride, his chest puffed out. Auratus, standing next to him, looked proud of her headmistress as well, although it was hard to tell because she was so quiet and her goldfish-like face made it difficult to read her facial expressions.

  “Say, what are your names, anyway?” said Darek. He held out a hand. “I'm Darek Takren and this is Aorja Kitano. You are—?”

  The two Institute students stared at Darek's outstretched hand like they had never seen such a thing before. It confused Darek for a moment before he realized that aquarians might not greet each other with handshakes, but he had no idea how they greeted each other and he felt too embarrassed to ask them.

  So, lowering his hand, Darek said, “Just a human way of greeting someone new. Anyway, you can just tell us your names.”

  “Okay,” said the male student. “I Kuroshio. Botamancer. And this Auratus, personal pupil of Archmage.”

  “I already knew her name,” said Darek. “She was there when I rescued Jiku here. Why doesn't she introduce herself, though?”

  Auratus looked down at her feet, almost like she was embarrassed, while Kuroshio said, “She … what's the word. She is mute. Can't speak.”

  “Oh,” said Darek. “I'm sorry to hear that. Has she always been that way or—?”

  “Been that way for long time,” said Kuroshio. “But not forever. Not subject she like to talk about.”

  Auratus gave Kuroshio a grateful smile, although Darek didn't understand it. He wanted to find out more about how she lost her ability to speak, but before he could, Aorja asked, “So how does Auratus communicate if she can't talk?”

  Kuroshio tapped the side of his head. “Telepathy. Sends mental messages to people. Sometimes sign language, but telepathy more reliable.”

  “Oh,” said Aorja. “I've heard of those types of mages. They're usually audimancers, aren't they?”

  “Auratus not audimancer,” said Kuroshio, his tone sharp. “Fuscimancer. Controls shadows. Good at telemancy as well.”

  Granted, Darek was no expert at understanding aquarians, but he knew the 'this is not a subject that you want to talk about' tone very well. Clearly, Auratus was sensitive about being accused of being an audimancer, though why, he didn't know and he didn't think Auratus or Kuroshio would be willing to elaborate. He had a feeling that it wasn't really any of their business, although he really wanted to know more about it. Maybe he could find out more about her, subtly.

  “Oh, fuscimancy?” said Aorja. “That makes her a servant of Ooka, the God of Shadows and Knives, yes?”

  “Yes,” said Kuroshio. “She very good. In training to one day replace Yorak as Archmage.”

  “Then she must be very good,” said Darek. “The Magical Superior used to have a pupil years ago, but then he was killed and the Superior has gone without one since.”

  “Why?” said Kuroshio. “Need successor, right? Why go without pupil?”

  Darek shrugged. “It happened when I was very young, so I don't recall all of it. I've never talked about with the Superior and he hasn't shared his reasons for doing it, but there have always been rumors about him picking a new one every year, although he has yet to do it.”

  “Hmm,” said Kuroshio, scratching his arm. “Interesting.”

  That was all he said on the matter before lapsing into silence. Neither of the two aquarians said anything else and for a moment, Darek was too absorbed by the awkwardness of the moment to know what else he should say.

  Then Aorja spoke up, pointing at Kuroshio's a
rmband. “Why do you aquarian mages use stones to cast spells instead of wands?”

  Kuroshio put his hand over his green stone. “More practical. Easier to use underwater. Stone channels magic better than wood.”

  “But how does that work?” Aorja asked, leaning forward, her eyes darting from Auratus's anklet to Kuroshio's armband. “I know that technically anything can be used to channel magic, but I was always told that wands were the best because they were specifically designed to channel the divine energy. Never occurred to me to use a stone.”

  Kuroshio stared blankly at Aorja, which told Darek that he clearly had not understood most of what she said. It made him wonder just how much Divina that Kuroshio understood. For that matter, he wondered how much Auratus understood, who due to her inability to talk was even more of an enigma than Kuroshio.

  So Darek said, in a slower voice than Aorja, “Aorja wonders how your magical stones work. She says that wands were designed for magical use, which is why we think they're better.”

  Kuroshio's goggles made it difficult to tell if he understood Darek's explanation at first, but then he nodded and said, “Ah. Well, stones very good. Mined from ocean floor. Can store magic energy. Useful.”

  His broken Divina was hard to understand, although Darek thought he got the gist of it. “So these stones are different from normal stones, then?”

  Before Kuroshio could answer, a small tremor shook the floor beneath their feet. Darek and Aorja looked down at the floor and so did Kuroshio and Auratus. Another tremor followed, this one stronger than the last.

  “What that?” said Kuroshio, looking up at Darek and Aorja with panic in his eyes. “Earthquake?”

  Darek shook his head as another tremor made Jiku's bed shake, although Jiku himself did not move. “Can't be. We never have earthquakes around here. This is something else entirely.”

  “Geomancer?” said Kuroshio, looking from Darek to Aorja and back again. “One of your fellow students?”

  Another tremor happened before Darek could respond, this one so abrupt that it almost threw him off his feet. He grabbed the railing of Jiku's bed to steady himself, however, and held it tightly as he stood up to his full height again.

  “I don't think so,” said Darek. “We should go check, however, just to be—”

  For the fourth time, the medical wing was shaken by another tremor, but this time, it was enough to cause the chandeliers overhead to sway. Darek doubted they would fall—the entire Arcanium was reinforced by an ancient magic designed to keep the place from falling in on itself in the event of some disaster like this—but seeing the chandeliers swaying set him on edge anyway.

  “Come on,” said Darek as he pushed away from Jiku's bed. “We're going to go find out what's going on out there and deal with it, if possible.”

  -

  Bursting through the front doors of the Arcanium and out onto the front steps, Darek found the cause of the tremors immediately, although he had a hard time understanding what he was looking at, at first.

  The creature had the giant wings of a bat sprouting from its shoulders, with a long, lion-like tail that whipped through the air. Its hind legs were short and stubby, like the legs of a zinyu, and its body was covered in fur like a thick coat. It had the face of a tiger, but the strangest part of all was its 'arms,' which were essentially pile drivers that it used to beat against the earth. Every time its 'arms' slammed into the ground, another tremor shook the school, easily identifying the monster as the source of the tremors.

  “What in Skimif's name is that?” said Aorja, her eyes widening as she drew her wand for battle.

  “Chimera,” said Kuroshio. “Created creatures. Very rare, though.”

  Darek had heard about chimeras. Like Kuroshio said, they were very rare, and when they did exist, their appearance was often radically different from one another. Chimeras were creatures created by biomancers, although due to the difficulty of such a feat, they were rarely seen. The gods could create chimeras as well, although those were even rarer.

  Not that the rarity of such creatures mattered at the moment. After all, there was currently one right in front of them at this very moment apparently trying to destroy the foundations of the school itself. There was no time to sit around and think or talk about the history of chimeras or anything like that.

  About the only thing that registered on Darek's mind was that none of the other students or teachers had yet to show up, despite the fact that the chimera was not even trying to hide. He figured that the others would be here soon, but until then, it would be up to him, Aorja, Kuroshio, and Auratus to deal with it.

  “I don't care what it is,” said Darek as he reached for his wand before remembering that he had lost it in the fire of the Third Dorm, and cursing in his mind. “It's clearly up to no good. Let's show it what happens when you mess with the Academy and the Institute.”

  Although he was wand-less, Darek teleported down the steps to the commons area without waiting to see if the others were going to follow. As soon as he reappeared on the grass, he pointed his hand, which was now glowing an icy-blue with the ice energy he was channeling through it, at the chimera and flicked his wrist.

  The chimera—which had completely ignored him in its desire to destroy the school—suddenly became encased in a thick block of ice up to its neck. The chimera roared in shock and anger before its deep black eyes fixed on Darek. It gave off a low, powerful growl that would have sent Darek running if the school itself had not been at stake here.

  What's it gonna do? Darek thought with a smile. It's completely trapped inside that ice block. It can growl threateningly all day long and it still won't do a thing.

  His smile vanished from his face, however, when thick cracks appeared in the ice block. A moment later, the ice exploded, sending huge frozen chunks flying everywhere as the chimera stretched its wings and shook its head.

  Ducking to avoid one particularly large chunk of ice that went flying in his direction, Darek raised his hand to try freezing it again (he decided that he just hadn't made the ice thick enough the first time) when the chimera vanished.

  By Skimif's name, Darek thought, his eyes darting all over the courtyard as he looked for the chimera. It can teleport?

  At that moment, he heard feet running down the steps behind him. Looking over his shoulder, Darek saw Aorja, Kuroshio, and Auratus running down the Arcanium's front steps toward him. He opened his mouth to tell them to keep an eye out for the chimera when a thick shadow fell over him, followed immediately by a terrible scent, like that of swamp mud mixed with blood.

  Turning away from his friends, Darek saw the chimera standing right in front of him. Not only that, but it was raising its pile drivers above his head, clearly planning to turn him into paste.

  Darek had no time to attack it or teleport out of its way, so he jumped to the side and landed on his side as the chimera brought its pile drivers onto the ground where he once stood. The ground shook under the pile drivers' impact, making it impossible for Darek to find his footing. He shot a glance at Aorja, Kuroshio, and Auratus, who were thrown off the steps and onto the ground very roughly, although they seemed to be okay.

  Getting to his feet now that the ground wasn't shaking, Darek aimed his hand at the chimera once more, but then it vanished again. Cursing foully under his breath, Darek looked around for the chimera when he spotted a dozen or so of his fellow students, along with a handful of teachers, running toward the courtyard where he stood.

  A smile spread across his face when he saw them. Having so many of his fellow students helping, plus some of the teachers, would undoubtedly make it easier to defeat the chimera. After all, the students and teachers in this school were the best of the best. Soon, the chimera would be defeated and everything would be—

  He smelled it before he felt it, but when that same scent of swamp mud and blood entered his nostrils, his brain only registered it too late. Something hard and thick slammed into his back, like a thick pillar of stone. It sen
t him flying through the air, perhaps a dozen feet above the ground. The world spun around him until he landed flat on his back on the grass, the impact knocking the breath from his lungs.

  He heard shouting and raised his head high enough to see that the other students and teachers were almost here. He tried to shout to let them know that the chimera was dangerous, but the impact of the fall must have been worse than he thought, because his words came out gargled and distorted.

  One of the teachers—a stout, elderly man with spectacles named Noharf Ximin—was in the lead. He drew his wand from the folds of his robes and aimed it at the chimera, but the chimera let out an ear-splitting roar that forced Darek to slam his hands over his ears to avoid losing his hearing entirely.

  When the chimera ceased roaring, Darek removed his hands from his ears. His hearing still worked, although when he looked at the students and teachers who had been coming to help, he was puzzled to see them standing just outside of the circle of grass that made up the courtyard. Many of them were striking some kind of invisible barrier with magical blasts, while a handful had ditched their magic for their feet and fists.

  It took Darek a moment to realize what he was looking at. Somehow, the chimera's roar had created an invisible barrier that kept out all of the other students and teachers except for himself. Even Aorja, Kuroshio, and Auratus were on the outside. He saw them doing their best to attack the barrier, but it was clearly no use whatsoever.

  Getting to his feet, Darek looked at the chimera, which, unless he was mistaken, appeared more than a bit pleased with its brilliant plan to isolate him from the rest of his friends, fellow students, and teachers. He saw its shiny white teeth reflecting in the sunlight and knew immediately that he was screwed.

  Darek's shoulders slumped as the realization hit him. He could still use magic, but using his hands to channel his magic was always a risky move, largely because of the damage it could deal to them. That was another reason why human mages used wands. It was the best way to protect their hands or other parts of their bodies from the negative aftereffects of the spells they used on a daily basis.

  Right now, Darek's hands looked fine, although they felt terribly cold and there was a slight bluish tinge to them that did not look natural. Still, as he was on his own, there was no way he could run away and let someone else deal with the chimera. He'd have to deal with it on his own, at least until one of the others figured out how to break down that barrier.

  The chimera and Darek began circling each other, neither one taking his attention off the other. The chimera was clearly looking for an opening, just like Darek was, but Darek was not going to let it find one. He would have to distract it until one of the others could find a weakness in the barrier, as he doubted he could defeat it without his wand.

  Panting, the sweat running down the side of his head making him feel hotter than he was, Darek tried to figure out the best spell he could use that would damage his hands the least. Pagomancy was his specialty, but it was pretty clear that if he used it more often, he would end up freezing his hands. Therefore, he needed something else.

  Unfortunately, he had little time to think about what else he could do, because the chimera teleported again. His senses went into overdrive as he searched for the chimera, but then he realized that it was using the same strategy as before.

  Therefore, he whirled around just in time to see the chimera reappear behind him. Without even thinking, Darek slammed both of his fists into the chimera's thick, barrel-like chest. The blow itself did little against the chimera's body, as Darek was not much of a bodybuilder and the chimera's body was like a boulder.

  Instead, Darek channeled as much magic as he could through his hands into the chimera's body. He knew he probably shouldn't have, but he focused on his pagomancy, sending cold waves of ice through the chimera's body. He didn't even think about it, just kept channeling more and more ice cold energy as fast as he could.

  The chimera must have been shocked that Darek had predicted its strategy because it stood there for a moment as the ice spread across its whole form. When it finally seemed to realize what was happening, it let out a roar of anger, but that roar was soon cut off when the ice formed around its head, completely cutting off its air supply.

  Yet even after the ice consumed its head, Darek made it thicker and thicker, remembering how easily it had broken out of the ice block he had encased it in a few minutes ago. This in spite of the fact that his hands were now screaming with pain from the sheer coldness of the ice. He knew he should stop soon, but he was so determined to make sure the monster was actually dead that he didn't let up for at least another thirty seconds.

  By the time he was certain that the chimera was no longer a threat, the ice was so thick that the chimera itself was barely visible underneath it. Removing his hands from its chest, Darek took a step back, panting, feeling his magical energy levels at perhaps half their normal levels, if even that.

  Then he looked down at his hands and wished he hadn't. His hands were a solid blue, almost as blue as the ocean itself. He couldn't even feel them, although he had no idea if the damage was permanent or if it was temporary. Nor could he move his fingers, which looked more like frozen sausages now than the digits of a human hand.

  The air where the barrier had formed shimmered, and the next moment, it was gone. Darek realized that the chimera must have been consciously maintaining the barrier, which meant that if the barrier was gone, then the chimera was well and truly dead.

  Yet Darek didn't shout in joy or celebrate his victory. Using up so much power so quickly, in addition to his frozen hands, had worn him out and he could barely stand upright, much less jump for joy at his victory.

  He closed his eyes as he fell backwards, his mind fading into unconsciousness well before he hit the grass.

  ***