Hidden Magic of Aldarae: Seeking Magic Pt.I

Part One: The Hunt

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had the same dream.

The same nightmare.

It’s not exactly uncommon, I suppose; lots of people dream of being chased, waking up in a cold sweat with their hearts racing. But I always have it, every time I close my eyes to sleep. And I can never escape. Not once have I woken up before they catch me, before they drag me to the stone pyre in City Square. They tie me to it, and rock changes to wood against my back. Then there’s the fire, and people gathering, watching like it’s some mummers’ play, and I’m screaming, and I recognize the faces tipped back to watch me burn, but no one moves to help—

Needless to say, I don’t usually sleep well.

In fact, the night we agreed to meet, I hadn’t slept in two days. The nightmare was getting worse, more real. So, when I crept into the back room of the tavern, only dropping the hood of my cloak when I was sure we were alone, the young woman waiting for me frowned and said, “You look terrible.”

I made a face at her and took the chair across the small table she had seated herself at. “Thanks ever so,” I quipped, forcing a smile. “You know, it’s really amazing you don’t have more friends.”

The Shadow smirked at me, her strange indigo eyes gleaming in the dim candlelight. “Who needs ‘em?” she said lightly. “They just hold you down.” She tried to keep it, but the teasing twist to her lips fell away and she leaned forward, putting her hand over mine on the rough wood of the table. “Seriously, though, you alright?”

I nodded, my smile turning more genuine at her concern. I was probably the only person in Varcia who got to see this side of her. “I’m fine, Shae, really.”

She winced and glanced around, scooping handfuls of curling raven hair from her face. “Say it louder, why don’t you?” she grumbled, scowling at me. “I don’t think the rest of the street quite heard my name.”

I rolled my eyes. “Gods and demons, you’re ridiculous,” I muttered, shaking my head at her fondly. “You know no one heard me.” I understood why the woman known to the rest of the city as the Shadow guarded her true name so jealously, but honestly. We were entirely alone—and I only knew her name by accident, really; over a year ago, I’d heard a rumor that my mentor was back in Varcia, and that he was seeking something from the Ravenfell household. Later, when the nobles starting panicking about a thief actually managing to sneak into the manor and make off with something—a necklace—I put two and two together, and decided I should find the thief. It hadn’t been easy, but once I’d found her, I’d had to be honest with her. It wasn’t like she could go to the Guard, after all.

But when she saw my eyes flash gold as I created a small butterfly of green and blue light to prove to her what I was—a simple enough spell, one I’d learned as a child—she’d panicked. She thought “he” had sent me, and she told me I could tell him that “Shae wants nothing to do with him and his godsdamned magic and politics”.

It had taken me a while to calm her down and explain, and once I did she’d instantly started griping about how she’d given her name away. It took some doing, but I eventually convinced her she could trust me and enlisted her help; we’d even become friends during our long search. But here we were, eighteen months later, and still no sign of him. Not only that, but our task had become much more difficult, what with me now in hiding and no longer able to gather the nobles’ gossip.

A pang of sorrow hit me at the thought. It’d been nearly six months since my journey to the coast with the Warranhalls. Six months since I’d had to reveal what I am and run from them. I still missed the girls, Mina and Lisanna. And Aiden, I missed Aiden. He’d been a good friend. I hoped he and Gareth were happy.

“What you thinkin’ about?” Shae asked, pulling me from my reverie. I blinked and refocused on her face.

“Aiden and Gareth and the others,” I admitted easily. “I was wondering how they’re doing.”

Shae snorted and rolled her eyes, as I expected she would. “Like I said, friends hold you back.” She shook her head, an expression of wondering exasperation on her face. “Honestly, I can’t believe you trusted a pair of Guardsmen. I swear, I keep waiting for them to bust you.” She tried to keep her tone scathing, but I could hear the genuine fear in her voice.

I smiled and squeezed her hand reassuringly. “The Coopers are good people,” I told her for what felt like the thousandth time. She scoffed. I understood her mistrust, and normally I would share it. But she didn’t know Ryn and Gareth; she’d never seen that righteous light that seemed to shine around them, visible only to those with the Gift. They were special, I just knew it. And even after learning that I’d lied to him, Erryn had helped me. I hadn’t seen him in months, not since we’d parted ways before the city gates after our journey back to Varcia, but I still sometimes left notes or coded messages in places I knew he’d find them, and he often returned the courtesy. I felt a tiny bit guilty about how hard he was working to catch the Shadow, but I couldn’t very well try to explain that to him just yet. He’d had a hard enough time with me being a witch.

I realized I was once again drifiting and shook my head, jerking my attention back to the present. “Anyway, you didn’t call me here just to berate me for my choice of friends.” Again. “What have you found?”

She glanced around again, and—a bit belatedly, perhaps—I threw up a quick, simple barrier spell that would prevent anyone from listening in. “It could be nothing,” she warned, lowering her voice as she leaned in. I mirrored the movement, heart starting to stutter in excitement and desperate hope. Maybe…maybe this time…

“People have been talking,” she murmured, “saying they’ve seen a mysterious figure in a dark cloak skulking around the edges of the lower districts at dawn and dusk. He never talks to anyone, and people who claim to’ve seem ‘im say there one minute he’s there and the next—” She spread her hands and wiggled her fingers, her symbol for magic that usually made me giggle. “Gone.”

I nodded, biting my lip. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but… “That sounds like something, Shae,” I whispered, a smile starting to creep across my face.

She started to smile back, just a twitch of her lips. I was about to ask what we should do about the new information—try to confront him? No, he’d know we were coming and run, damn him. Lure him in, maybe…but he was far too clever for that—when I felt something at the edge of my awareness, that place my magic came from. My back went ramrod straight and I threw up a hand for silence as Shae started to question me. Narrowing my eyes, I listened: not with my ears but with that deep, golden part of me that always flickered in the corners of my vision.

“Someone knows we’re here,” I hissed, and Shae was instantly on her feet.

“Where?” she demanded. “How?”

“Coming up the stairs—damn, it feels malevolent, we have to get out of here.” I was already moving toward the back door of the room, Shae falling easily into step beside me. She held up a hand for me to wait while she cracked the door open and peered into the dark hallway beyond, then she gave me a brief nod to show it was all clear. We crept out and closed the door silently behind us. I raised my hands and pressed them to the wood, muttering softly in Old Tongue: “Sound, lock, barrier, grant us safety, delay.”

That was how most spells worked—the simpler ones, anyway. With the language of magic on your tongue, you just had to will your intent into the world. Of course, what could be accomplished with such magic was limited, but it should be enough to buy us some time.

Power surged in my chest then poured out of my fingers. I stepped back, letting out a sharp breath and blinking to clear the golden shimmer from my eyes.

“That should help,” I whispered as we started down the hallway, to the back door of the tavern itself. “It will sound like two women are talking in the room, and I’ve locked the doors. Hopefully it’ll slow them down.”

Shae nodded silently, watching me out of the corner of her eye with something between wariness and awe. I almost chuckled; once she had gotten used to the idea of magic all those months ago, she had forever seemed fascinated by my “great power,” and even Old Tongue itself. I wondered, vaguely, if people would be so awed by that kind of magic if they knew we mostly just spouted a string of nonsense and hoped it worked.

In a matter of moments, we were in the alley behind the tavern. It was pitch black; the light of the torches that lined the larger streets not able to reach back here. We looked around and I sent out a thread of power, searching for any sign of human life.

“I think we’re clear—" I began, when suddenly my magic picked up a breath, a heartbeat. “To the left, alley!” I bit out, lunging forward and grabbing Shae’s arm to drag her out of the path of the dagger that flew through the air, burying itself in the ground where her feet had been a moment before.

Without another word or thought we turned and ran.

The darkness was like a living thing, sucking at our feet and swallowing our panting breaths. I relied more on my magic than my eyes to maneuver through the back alleys between abandoned houses and rundown once-shops Shae was leading us through, using it like a sixth sense to warn me of obstacles and turns. Thank the gods that Shae seemed to know where she was going; she knew the lower districts like the beat of her own heart. She was so quick she almost left me behind after several sharp turns into side streets that seemed to appear from nowhere. I had to trust that she would somehow lead us to safety in the blackness, that the shadows would aide one of their own.

Heavy, booted footsteps echoed off the cobblestone behind us, not gaining but not slowing either. I knew Shae’s erratic, darting turns were an effort to lose our pursuers, but we couldn’t seem to manage it. And my magic was flaring every few feet as more and more guards joined the group hunting us.

A trap, I projected into Shae’s mind the sixth time this happened. A good one—there are more than half a dozen following us now. Perryn must have sold us out months ago, for them to have set this up.

I heard her hissing, angry breath emanating from the darkness in front of me, but we didn’t have time to speak aloud. She made another hairpin turn and my feet almost skidded out from under me as I scrambled to follow. It was only after we slipped under the overhang of an abandoned, crumbling building that I realized why we’d had to turn, felt the flare of power that alerted me to the presence of three more Guardsmen. Damnit.

I had to do something, we couldn’t outrun this many for long. Projecting a sharp, quick, Keep going, I’ll catch up, I screeched into a turn and threw my hands up as the guards closed in on me, barely more than moving shadows on shadows to my eyes, but gleaming points of life to my magic. Summoning my power, I felt it rush up from the soles of me feet to spread through my whole being, tingling on the surface of my skin. My fingers curled into a sort of four-pointed claw and I murmured, “Sleep.”

Almost the instant the Old Tongue left my lips, the guards faltered, slowing. One threw a dagger, but he was already swaying on his feet, and the throw went wide. “Sleep.” I intoned again, bearing down on their glittering, colorful sparks in my mind’s eye, shading them gray with exhaustion. “Sleep.”

One dropped, then another. The others fought the spell, though it seemed to be all they could do just to stay upright, and they weren’t even managing that very well. Digging deep, I pulled at the core of power in my chest and shouted once more, “Sleep!”

They dropped, all at once, like a rehearsed scene in a play. Quite despite myself, I smirked. Never let it be said that magic isn’t—just a little bit—satisfying.

But I didn’t have time to gloat about how my powers had been improving. In an instant I was running again, throwing out a thread of magic to trace Shae’s path. The golden glow—invisible to those without the Gift—led me down a relatively straight path, and in less than a minute we were running side by side again.

Not for long though. We whipped around a corner, out into a slightly wider alley that could almost be called a small lane and skidded to a halt as we were confronted with seven large, rather cross men. They weren’t sporting the colors of the Guard, but their intentions were pretty obvious as they drew an assortment of daggers and short swords—one even had a crossbow—and started toward us.

I threw up a hand and shouted “Sleep!” The men wavered, but kept on coming, blinking drowsiness from their eyes. The colored points of life that they were to my magic sputtered as my power touched them, then flared into a barrier. “They have protection charms, something warding them against magic,” I hissed to Shae. She grimaced: such charms were rare, made from a variety of natural herbs and stones that were resistant to magic. These were no ordinary Guardsmen or mercenaries; we hurriedly backed up.

But there was nowhere to go, the men had herded us away from the entrance to the alley that had led us here and now only crumbling walls surrounded us. “Confusion, lost!” I tried again. The flare of their protection was weaker this time, but still very much intact.

Something of my power must have slipped through though, because five of them suddenly started stumbling away to the right before they corrected themselves and came at us again, now glaring and growling. The one with the crossbow hefted the weapon and took aim.

“Break, miss, stop!” I shrieked in desperation, throwing my shoulder into Shae as I did so and knocking us both out of the path of the bolt.

Luckily, the protection charms didn’t seem to extend to the men’s weapons; the bow broke apart with a cracking explosion of wood. The man swore as splinters sliced into his flesh and dropped the mangled remains of the crossbow.

“Distract them,” Shae hissed in my ear. Then she was gone, disappeared into the shadows like a phantom. Heart pounding, I planted my feet and raised my arms. Distraction. Okay. I could do that.

The men regrouped and moved forward again, only to hesitate when they realized I was—by all appearances—alone. I smirked, ignoring the tight panic in my chest and the labored pants huffing through my lips. “Rise,” I murmured, speaking to the stone cobbles beneath my feet.

For an agonizing instant, nothing happened. Then the ground rumbled and cracked, and the cobblestones heaved like a living thing, inhaling into uneven mounds between me and my attackers. The men shouted and swore, stumbling as the very ground fought against them. Using their inattention, I thrust my right hand out, fingers forming a pointing claw, and hissed, “Freeze, sleep, halt.”

The thing about protection charms is that they have a certain number of “hits”; unless an object is spelled itself, its natural resistance to magic will gradually wear down. I was hitting the men with enough minor spells that they probably wouldn’t notice what I was doing while their protection from my power slowly crumbled.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for that method to really do much good. The men blinked drowsily, their feet slowed, and the air around them dropped drastically in temperature, making their teeth chatter. But their soft lights just flared up again, weaker now, and not much else happened.

Whatever you’re going to do, do it now! I projected to Shae, hopping she was still close enough for me to do so.

Apparently, she was. Silent as the night itself, a figure dropped from one of the roofs on the other side of the alley, taking out two men with her fall and slicing another’s bicep with the dagger that seemed to have materialized in her hand—she’d told me once that learning slight-of-hand would never be a regret of hers, and I’d happily admit I was envious of the skill.

Now our attackers faltered, unsure who to face first. Taking advantage of the confusion, both Shae and I attacked.

“Wind, noise, cold, heat, stop, sleep, not Shae!” I shouted in rapid succession, and my magic leapt to obey. Shae didn’t pay the wind any mind as it picked up around her, pelting the men with small stones and gutter refuse, whatever it happened to pick up. It was a howling, wild thing, but the noise didn’t seem to bother her. She darted in and around the group as the air became sweltering, like standing next to an open forge, then cold as a mountain top in a winter blizzard. Some of the men couldn’t move their feet, while others seemed to have trouble keeping their eyes open.

The Shadow took care of them easily, using the rounded hilt of her dagger to crack down at the base of their skulls, knocking them unconscious, or slicing at the tendons in their heels. I winced slightly at the blood and sudden shrieks of pain, but I knew we didn’t have much choice. Not if we didn’t want to kill them.

In a matter of moments her work was done, and she was sprinting back to me. She grabbed my arm and towed me after her down the alley, which looped around into a small square surrounded by empty, dilapidated houses.

“Nice work back there,” she hissed out between pants as we tore across the open space and ducked between two of the crumbling building.

“You, too.” I nodded at her in acknowledgement and gave a small smile.

She flashed a grin in return, then paused and looked around, getting her bearings I suppose. I’m not ashamed to admit I was unfamiliar enough with this part of the city, and we’d taken so many sharp turns and double-backs, that I had no idea where we were. I certainly hoped she did.

“C’mon,” she whispered, jerking her head to the left, and we took off again. As we did, she took my hand and pressed something cool and metal into it. My magic more than my sight told me it was a small knife, snatched off one of our attackers from before. “Just in case,” she murmured, and we turned another corner then ducked into one of the ramshackle once-upon-a-time houses. I nodded and slid the weapon into the belt around my waist that cinched my skirt to my body.

A sudden cracking sound jerked my mind back to the present. Both Shae and I froze, and I cast my magic out in a searching net. Gold veiled the edges of my vision as I probed the house, creeping forward with Shae at my side, prowling and watchful as a jungle cat.

There was something, some life; it might just be rats, or a stray dog. But I knew we couldn’t take the chance. “We need to get out of here—" I started.

Whiz. Thwimp!

Shae cried out in pain and shock as she staggered back. With a shout, I threw my magic out instinctively, whipping around in an attempt to locate the person who’d shot the arrow now protruding from my companion’s shoulder.

With a dull groan, a body fell from the broken rafters above us and hit the floor, prone. I didn’t waste time to see who it was or if I had killed him—oh gods, oh gods, don’t let me be a murderer—before grabbing Shae’s arm and tugging her back out into the alley.

We ran again, slower now, the Shae huffing with pain, lips tight and eyes wide. The arrow wasn’t in too deep, and she managed to rip it out as we moved. I cringed at her muffled shriek and the sound of tearing flesh. I knew enough medicine to know that wasn’t the best idea, but, once again, it seemed we didn’t have much choice.

Just a little more, I projected to her. I took a moment to send a thread of power to soothe the pain with a whispered, “Make well,” and wished I was better at healing spells under pressure. We just need to get somewhere safe, then I can heal you.

She nodded, skin now tinged with a rather concerning shade of gray, eyes tight with pain. “West Wall—four streets over,” she spit out, and I instantly knew what she meant. We couldn’t stay in Varcia, not anymore. We had to sneak out of the city, and the drainage gate through the West Wall was our best option.

I led us through another alley and into a small lane that led toward the wall, weaving and turning when I could in an attempt to throw off pursuers. As we ran, my mind seemed to kick into overdrive, though I tried to ignore it, to shut it down so I could focus on getting away.

How? How did they know, how were they waiting for us? They were everywhere—just…how? How could they have possibly known we would go into that abandoned house, have someone waiting for us?

With that thought came the memory of the archer I’d knocked from the rafters. Honestly, that scared me almost as much as our pursuers’ unearthly knowledge of us; I’d never done magic—magic like that, like a proper spell as opposed to just sensing—without Old Tongue to shape it. Never. I knew only one person who could…and he had told me it was a skill that took incredible power, the kind of power that could topple empires if used incorrectly. If it wasn’t properly controlled, there could be dire consequences.

I gulped; the image of the archer crumpling, seemingly lifeless, seared itself into my brain. Please don’t be dead, I prayed silently. Please don’t let me be a killer.

The Wall was close, so close. Just beyond the next line of houses, across the narrow street in front of us. Almost there, I projected encouragingly, and began hauling Shae across the street. She stumbled, panting, and I looked at her worriedly. Her normally olive complexion had blanched to something stark and sickly, tinged with gray. Her eyes were clouding over.

“Oh no,” I whispered, halting despite the urgency. Desperately I threw my magic into her wound, searching, hardly noticing that once again I didn’t need words to aid my spell. I put it from my mind, hoping, praying, that I was wrong, or that I could do something…

“Poisoned,” I hissed, reeling my power back in. Shae slumped, shuddering, and I caught her as we both sunk to the ground. The arrow had been poisoned; and not with just any toxin, but dragonsbane, perhaps the most magically resistant plant in the world. I would need days to heal her, and that was if I’d caught it earlier—

“Yes.” The voice spoke just as my magic flared, warning me—too late, I was too tired—of a life approaching. “Poisoned.”

I turned, cradling Shae in my arms, and saw a man stepping out of the shadows into the street. My heart stuttered and my blood ran cold. “You,” I breathed.

Dark eyes narrowed and thin lips twisted into a smirk. “Me,” Captain Reynard agreed as more men, a dozen at least, melted out of the darkness to flank him, bearing torches and weapons.

I pulled Shae closer, and she drew in a ragged, pained gasp. I looked to the Guardsmen and their Captain; magic swirled, angry and impotent, inside my chest. I wasn’t stupid. I knew what this was now. An elaborate trap, one that must have been months in the making, with several dozen guards involved to cut off any possible escape. The archer hadn’t been shooting to kill Shae—not right away at any rate.

“You’ve got your leverage,” I hissed at Captain Reynard, arms tightening around my companion. The guards, wary, circled us, brandishing their fire and steel. “What do you want?” It was a rhetorical question, really. I knew what they wanted.

What they wanted from any magic user.

“Your life,” the Captain replied coolly, answering to my expectation. “But for the moment, I’ll settle for your surrender.”

That I hadn’t been expecting. Why put it off? Why not just kill me now, while I was powerless? I knew they must have an antidote for Shae. Reynard knew I would cooperate, as long as he saved her life. So why not just take mine now?

The Captain’s smirk grew. “You seem confused,” he said, snapping his fingers at the man beside him. “Understandable, I suppose.” The guard moved forward, eyeing me warily, iron handcuffs that reeked of herbs—magic-resistant—clutched tight in his fist. “But it would be such a waste to kill you here, in the back alleys where no one will know, don’t you see?”

The cuffs clamped shut around my wrists and Shae was lifted away from me. I felt cold and empty, fear hollowing me out. I wish I could say I was already working on a plan to save Shae myself and escape, but honestly my only thought was, No no no, please gods, oh no no no.

One of the guards behind me moved forward and struck me hard in the back of the head. I slumped forward, but before I lost consciousness, I heard the Captain’s voice once more:

“It seems the stone pyre will have a purpose once again.”