Darkness Rising Read online

  He bowed to each in turn then clasped his hands behind his back and waited. He didn’t have to wait long.

  “Mistress Ann has recommended you for the final examination,” the Master of the South said. “Do you feel you are ready?”

  Damien faced the master. “Yes, sir.”

  “Very well,” the Mistress of the East said, her voice almost as deep as the master’s. “You must demonstrate competence in four of the six primary skills. Where do you wish to begin?”

  “Shielding.” Protection and attack were Damien’s strongest skills so he planned to start there and make a good first impression.

  “Form your shield and we will attack. Resist as long as you can,” the Master of the South said.

  Damien conjured a golden globe around himself, wasting neither time nor energy to make it invisible. He spent a quarter of his power on it and felt certain it would hold against anything but a full-power assault. Energy blasts from each master struck his shield in succession. Their attacks didn’t even cause it to flex. So far so good.

  Next they attacked it together. Dents formed, but the shield held. Damien let out a breath. A moment later a golden giant appeared, a club in its hand. It swung down at him and an instant before it struck he reinforced the top of the sphere. The club skipped off without breaking through.

  “Well done,” the Mistress of the North said. “You pass the first test.”

  Damien reabsorbed the shield energy remaining and diverted some of the power from his personal shield to restoring his core. It wouldn’t take long for his power to replenish.

  Damien passed attack easily, hitting multiple moving targets and shattering every shield they conjured. Detection was harder, but he found the poison in every sample they brought and neutralized it. He was almost through. Sweat stained his tunic and stuck it to his back.

  “Next?” the Mistress of the North asked.

  “Shaping.” Damien took a few deep breaths to steady himself and a chunk of stone floated down from somewhere in the darkened recesses above him. “What do you wish me to make?”

  “Whatever you like,” the Mistress of the East said. “Impress us.”

  Damien studied the stone, both with his eyes and his soul force. It was taller than it was wide and a couple of fissures ran through it. If he hit those wrong the rock would crumble and he’d fail the test. Luckily for him both flaws ran along the edge of the stone so he could use most of it. When he had the image of what he wanted firmly in mind he sent out streams of soul force and carved.

  He had no sense of time as he worked, his focus on the task absolute. When he finally finished, a statue of a nude, winged female sat on the floor. The face was a little crude and the feathers on the wings could have used more texture, but overall it was a pretty good likeness of Lizzy.

  Around him the masters applauded. “The finest example of shaping we’ve seen from a candidate in many years. That’s four passed out of six,” the Master of the South said. “Congratulations, you’ve passed your final test.”

  The master looked at the three women and each nodded. He continued. “We remove all restrictions from you. You are now free to use your powers at your discretion. Finally, you’ll need to find an experienced sorcerer to mentor you for two years of field work before you’ll get missions of your own. Well done.”

  The door behind him opened, he bowed to each of the masters, and left. Ann stood beside her chair, a worried frown on her face. Damien grinned and she smiled. “You passed?”

  “Sure did. All credit to my teacher. How long was I in there?”

  “Three hours. I was afraid they’d killed you for a little while.” They went back downstairs in her basket. As they descended Ann asked, “What will you do now?”

  “I’m going home for a visit. Jen invited me for the Solstice festival and I’m eager to see her and Lizzy.”

  She leered at him. “You’re not afraid your lover has moved on in three years?”

  Damien had never told Ann Lizzy was a spirit bound in his father’s sword and he didn’t feel the need to now. “I don’t think so.”

  “Well if she has, let me know. After today you’re not my student anymore so anything goes.”

  Damien shook his head and the basket hit the second-floor landing. She never quit. “Thanks. Though I’d be too afraid of the other guys to try anything with the object of their affections.”

  She laughed, hugged him again, and rose up to the sixth floor and her apartment. Damien sighed. When he got back from The Citadel he’d have to find an apartment in the upper levels. He was a sorcerer now, which meant he couldn’t stay in the students’ rooms anymore.

  He made the familiar walk back to the room he shared with Eli and pushed the door open. His roommate lay on his bed, an arm over his eyes. When Damien entered he rolled on his side. “How’d you do?”

  “Passed. Took damn near three hours. What happened to you?”

  “My shield broke, I missed half the moving targets, and my construct lost its mock battle.”

  Damien winced. He’d failed attack, shield, and conjuring, the three primary skills for a sorcerer, not good. “What about the rest?”

  “I passed detection and shaping no problem and I could have passed healing, but I failed the other three first.”

  “Sorry. Want some advice?”

  Eli shrugged, sighed, and said, “Sure, what could it hurt?”

  “Chose one of the three you failed and focus on it for the next six months. When the time comes you’ll have your skills ready to go.”

  Eli got up and they shook hands. “Thanks, Damien, you’ve been a good roommate and friend. I suppose I’ll get a new bunkmate now.”

  “Only for six months, then you can get an apartment on my floor, whichever one I end up on. I’m heading out for a few days. See you later.”

  “I saw your sister’s letter on your desk. You must be excited to finally go home again.”

  “Yeah, excited and terrified, the same as when I arrived here.”

  Chapter 14

  Damien circled The Citadel once to have a look around. It was late afternoon on a dull, gray summer day. He’d gathered his gear and taken off a couple minutes after his talk with Eli. His rucksack and weapons hung off his shoulder, just like when he’d left, but he didn’t bother with a mount. Instead he flew on his own like a bird, his shield keeping the bugs out of his mouth and nose. He went full blast, pushing as hard as he dared. He ended up making the return trip in under an hour.

  Below him, tiny figures practiced their forms in the training yard. A wave of nostalgia hit him, just for a second, before he remembered all the bad things he had to put up with. He descended and landed on the dirt patch beside the wall. No one greeted him, of course. He’d come early hoping to surprise Jen and Lizzy.

  He skirted the practice field, pausing a moment to look the students over and make sure no one was a sorcerer. Nope, all happy little warlords. That was good. He wouldn’t have wished the frustration he went through on anyone.

  He angled toward the fortress. Classes would end soon and Damien wanted to avoid the press of students in the entry hall.

  He walked through the doors and sighed in relief. The hall was empty; he’d beaten the rush. He jogged up the stairs and down the hall to his family’s quarters. He raised his hand to knock then hesitated. Three years, what would it be like to walk through that door again after three years?

  Stop being such a wimp.

  He pushed the door open.

  Jen stood in the kitchen setting the table, her familiar golden hair swirling around her as she worked. She’d grown since he last saw her. She stood close to six feet tall now and her figure had filled in. He suspected the guys still drooled when she walked by.

  Especially if she walked by wearing an outfit like the one she had on now. Sheer blue fabric billowed around her and slits in the arms and legs revealed smooth skin. A lot of female warlords dressed in revealing outfits to distract their opponents, their iron skin
defense better protection than any armor.

  “Hey, sis.”

  The plate in her hand fell to the kitchen floor and shattered. She spun, eyes filled with tears. “Damien.”

  She covered the distance between them in an instant, lifted him off the ground, and spun him around. She cried openly as she hugged him.

  He had a tickle in his throat, but managed not to cry. “It’s good to see you too.”

  She set him down. “I didn’t know if you were coming. Why didn’t you write?”

  “I didn’t know if I was coming either until I passed the final test this morning. I’m a full sorcerer now. I still have to do fieldwork with a more experienced sorcerer for two years before they’ll give me my own missions, but I have no restrictions on my power beyond good sense.”

  “Congratulations.” She stepped back and looked at him. “You’ve grown so much.”

  “So have you,” he said, eyeing her ample chest.

  “Ugh! Why is it every boy, even my brother, notices those first? I swear they’re nothing but a nuisance. Still, they make an excellent distraction when I fight men.”

  “I bet. What’s for dinner?”

  “Roast venison and vegetables. I need to clean up that plate.”

  “I’ll get it.” Damien focused on the plate and the pieces glowed and lifted off the floor. He heated the edges and fused the chunks together. The small bits he melted and used to fill the cracks. Finally he polished the surface and it looked good as new. “There, all fixed.”

  She looked at him then at the plate floating in the air in one piece. “Neat trick.”

  “Thanks.” He lowered the plate into the sink and released his power. “How’s it feel to be a proper warlord?”

  “Great.” Jen finished setting the table, adding a place for him. “They gave me my own squad. There’s only five of us, but I’m in command.”

  Damien sat in his usual place at the table. “Congratulations. From your letters I got the impression you didn’t care much for working with the watch in Port Valcane.”

  She grimaced. “No, the commander was grabby and it took all my self-control not to knock him through the wall of his office. That was a long year.”

  “I’m impressed you managed it. What’s your squad like?”

  She grinned and sat across from him. “They’re great. Tough, smart, and determined. One of them graduated this year, two are my yearmates, and the fourth is a veteran of twenty years.”

  Damien offered a knowing smile. “Is he there to keep an eye on you?”

  “Probably, but he’s never undercut me with the others and he follows orders like any other soldier so I can’t complain.”

  A creak from the door stopped Damien before he could ask another question. He glanced over his shoulder to see his father walk into the room, Lizzy held easily in his left hand. He spotted Damien and stopped. Here it comes.

  “Hi, Dad, I’m home.”

  “Damien. You’ve completed your studies?”

  Not the warmest greeting, but at least he hadn’t yelled or threatened to throw him out. “Yeah, I’m a full sorcerer now.” Damien conjured a little light and made it vanish.

  His father hung Lizzy over the fireplace and took his seat at the head of the table. “Sending you there was the right decision. Good. When’s dinner?”

  Chapter 15

  Damien lay on his old, lumpy bed, legs crossed, staring at the ceiling. Dinner had been an interesting sort of awkward. He and Dad had no idea how to react to each other. Jen had tried to fill the silence, but only sounded pained. They ended up eating without conversation and after he helped Jen clean up Damien retreated to his room. It would be a long visit if he and Dad couldn’t figure out some way to get comfortable with each other.

  He closed his eyes and found himself floating beside a beautiful, naked Lizzy. He sighed at the sight of her. They stared at each other for a moment then came together. The feathers of her wings tickled the back of his neck and her tears soaked his shirt. He held her, her body soft and familiar in his arms. Damien had dreamed of this reunion for three years.

  When they parted she wiped her eyes. “I wasn’t sure you’d ever come back.”

  “You didn’t think I’d forget about you, did you?”

  She sniffed. “Not really, but we were so far apart. You might have found another girl.”

  Damien grinned. “As though a girl exists that could compare with you.”

  She smiled. That appeared to have been the right thing to say.

  “In fact I used you as the model for my shaping final. The masters seemed impressed with the little statue I made of you.” He concentrated and a replica of his final project appeared in the air between them.

  She flew around the statue, looking it over. “Not too bad.”

  She lashed her wings and flew away. Damien let the statue vanish and chased after her. They played the old game, racing through the endless sky. When he caught her this time, she made his clothes vanish and wrapped them both in her wings.

  Later they drifted together, her wings around them like a blanket. Damien had always known this day would arrive, but now that it had, it felt more perfect than he’d dared hope. Lizzy rested her head on his chest and he put an arm around her. Not for the first time Damien wished he could stay with her like this forever. It would certainly be preferable to having to try to talk to his father again.

  “He regrets having been so hard on you.” Lizzy’s glowing red eyes looked up at him. She must have read his thoughts. “He just doesn’t know how to fix it. Emotional matters have never been Fredric’s strong suit.”

  Damien laughed, short, bitter and humorless. “No kidding. After the Solstice I’ll head back to The Tower and he’ll be free of me again.”

  “Do you have to leave so soon?”

  He stroked her hair. “I’ve got to start my fieldwork. I wish I could take you with me.”

  She sighed and nuzzled his neck. “I can’t project myself more than fifty feet, and I know of no sorcery that would allow us to connect over such a distance.”

  “I can try to visit more often. Maybe me and Dad can figure out some way to talk to each other that doesn’t resemble pulling teeth.”

  “I think he would like that. I certainly would.”

  Lizzy’s head lifted off his chest and listened to something beyond his perception.

  “What is it?”

  “Someone came to the door and now your sister’s getting dressed.”

  “Trouble?”

  “It’s after midnight, so I assume so.”

  Reading his mind again Lizzy returned him to his body. Damien rolled out of bed and went to the door in time to see Jen walk out of her room, her sword strapped to her back. Just inside the door stood a tall, broad-shouldered boy with a maul over his shoulder. “What’s up?”

  She turned back. “Goblins. They burned a farm eight miles north. I’m taking my squad to investigate. Go back to bed.”

  “Be careful.”

  She threw a wave over his shoulder and walked out with the stranger. Damien went back to bed and sighed. Goblins, so close to The Citadel. That was certainly strange. Usually they kept to the wild lands. The green-skinned monsters were stupid enough, but he thought they had more sense than to hunt near a cluster of warlords. He fell asleep still musing on what had prompted the little brutes to do something so foolish.

  Chapter 16

  Jen cinched the buckles on her back sheath tight as she walked down the hall beside Edward Mark, one of her squad members. They strode through the hall outside the living quarters, the only sound this late at night their boots on the stone floor.

  Glow globes set every twenty feet lit their path. Edward had drawn the short straw and received the task of fetching her when word of another goblin raid arrived at The Citadel. A little after midnight a night patrol had seen flames and when they went to investigate, discovered the attack. The little bastards had burned a farm an hour’s ride away.

  They
did it to mock her, she knew it.

  The raids had started two weeks ago. Local patrols had failed to deal with them; three soldiers were killed in the first attempt to handle the green-skinned monsters. After that the patrol leader put in a request to have warlords handle the matter.

  Hunting down a few goblin raiders should have been a simple matter, so Dad assigned Jen and her squad to the mission, her first as a commander. Three burned farms later Jen had begun to doubt their ability to even find the miserable wretches.

  She clenched her jaw and sent soul force through her brain to burn the last of the sleep from her mind. She needed her full focus tonight. No way would her prey escape this time.

  Outside the fortress’s main doors the rest of her squad waited with saddled horses. Dim light from a near-full moon lit the yard. Jen sent soul force to her eyes to enhance her vision and the scene before her became clear. Three warlords sat astride their horses, weapons and other gear secured, eager and ready for a fight. Jen leapt onto the back of her black gelding. None of them were more eager than her.

  “Let’s go!”

  They thundered through the main gate and turned up the dirt road, following the directions the patrolman provided. Between the moonlight and smooth road they made good time for the first part of the trip. Sparks leaping into the air showed the location of the burning farmhouse. Jen reined in her mount and turned off the main road and onto a rutted wagon path that led down to the farm.

  As they got closer the smoldering remains of the house came into view along with three patrolmen who were placing a shroud over an uncovered body. Jen frowned. More bodies on her watch. Each one pained her, as much because of the failure they represented as the loss of life. Jen hated failing, probably because she’d done so little of it. That’s what Damien would say if he could hear her thoughts.

  She didn’t yet know what to make of her little brother. He’d changed in the three years he spent at Sorcery. His trick with the plate showed he’d learned to use his soul force. She smiled at that. He’d struggled so long to get his power to work. That he’d finally found a way forward pleased her.