The Ardor - 6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Maraki shifted weight from his left leg to the right one in preparation for his next attack. I countered with the dren’kach move, the Reed. I bent my upper body back to the left and moved it counterclockwise to the right side. His arms grasped at nothing. Cin’trai, the Surf, a shoulder roll, took me to his rear. I pushed my elbow into his rump, making him howl in pain and rage. A moment of triumph became a moment of indecision; short, but it had been enough. Maraki jumped back and hit me square with his backside. The impact made me fly almost two Steps through the air before crashing on the ground. The pain, which surged through my back like ripples on water, reminded me of the price for being careless. Maraki’s face appeared over me, terror in his eyes and wrinkles on his forehead.

“Elyran?”

“Everything’s alright.”

That didn’t ease his worries.

“I forgot for a moment that I’m not fighting with an Ogrushkai.”

That was a compliment.

“I’ve to hold me back.”

“I don’t have the rapid healing of an Ogrushkai, but I’m not made of glass.”

My tone was much harsher than I had intended. In his eyes, terror made place for sadness.

“You’re angry and you’ve all right to be.”

“I’m not angry. But in full Ardor, you won’t hold back.”

Mentioning the Ardor fueled his grief. I put my hand on his cheek.

“If I want to stand a chance against you, you mustn’t spare me.”

He nestled his face against my hand.

“I wished the Ardor was gone for good.”

“It saved your race from extinction. It’s a part of your life, neither good nor bad.”

He closed his eyes.

“I can’t stand the thought of what it’ll make me do to you.”

“What the Nur’Zhul will do to me.”

His eyes opened.

“It will be me who’ll make you suffer.”

“I won’t believe that for a Fraction.”

I took my hand off his cheek.

“And if I did better with me’tai, we wouldn’t have any problem.”

“Doing better? In one Tenth, you made more progress than I did in an Orbit when I was learning me’tai.”

The decoy had worked, but with side effects. His appraisal of my fighting performance had given me this tingling feeling in my stomach. A foolish smile formed on my lips.

“You think so?”

The expression on my face had to be contagious and Maraki had already contracted it.

“Yes, I do. And for the Ogrushkai language: another half-Orbit of lessons and you’ll speak it better than I do.”

“A good start would be to stop confusing the words and getting the word order right.”

We burst out laughing.

“Saying that a green donkey is your uncle might cause confusion.”

“It’s not my fault that your words for powerful wizard and green donkey only differ by two letters. Moreover, you have so many rules for putting the words somewhere else that it takes a little time to get used to them.”

We snickered together.

“So there are reasons why no one wants to learn our language.”

“That makes me only more determined.”

The pain had ebbed down to a dull feeling. I sat up. Our faces were close and our eyes were riveted on each other. In Maraki’s gaze, a thought became longing, longing became desire and desire became restraint. All this happened in a moment’s time. He looked away and stood up. Maraki had carried his efforts of not showing his attraction for me to extremes. My eyes followed him as he went over to the pile of his clothes on the floor. How’d I react if he came on to me? The answer was interesting and startling at once: I wouldn’t mind and perhaps I might even…. I shook my head. He deserved more than to satisfy my curiosity. Within one Tenth, he had become the most important person in my life so far. I couldn’t imagine not having him around me for a single Cycle.

I got up and moved over to my clothes, dressing in silence. The sound of the wooden door being unlocked stopped me from closing the last button of my shirt.

The Nuzr, accompanied by two guards, entered the cell. He glowered down, pausing on the little platform before the door; his face was covered with a mask of scorn. He continued his way with heavy steps. Downstairs, he took his time scowling at me.

“The Councilor may be a more patient man than I am, but you’ve given us the runaround long enough, scum.”

He spat on the ground.

“He doesn’t dare to put hand on you, because you might get killed. But accidents happen, don’t they?”

The Nuzr’s lips acquired a lopsided grin.

“You two, get him out.”

The guards moved towards the cell door. I backed away from the door, every step adding to my panic. The right one was putting the key into the lock when Maraki jumped over and grabbed the guard through the bars by the throat, lifting him some Jots off the ground.

“You won’t touch him or this one will eat his next meal at the table of the gods.”

Gurgling sounds came out of the mouth of the guard and his eyes were filled with horror. The other guard was paralyzed by shock. Only the Nuzr had drawn his sword.

“One step Nuzr…”

The whimpering of the guard became more urgent as Maraki closed his hand a little more. The Nuzr mused whether the guard was dispensable, for his eyes wandered between him, Maraki and me.

Chills were running up and down my spine, this could only mean one thing. Moments later, Maraki collapsed to the ground and the guard, who was coughing wildly, with him.

“What, in the name of the Emperor, is going on here, Nuzr Shamar?”

The blue-robed sorcerer descended the steps, hands crossed before his face.

“My orders were precise, Nuzr Shamar, weren’t they?”

I looked at Maraki who was lying on the floor, convulsing from his fight against the spell. Seeing him like this made me act without thinking. Ignoring what was going on in the room, I moved over to him and knelt down. I put my hands on his temples and entered that state of doing and not-doing that I associated with magic. It had to be here… there it was. A thin, silvery line extended between the sorcerer and Maraki. Like a flaxen rope, filaments extended from it, scintillated and became one with the stream again. Mentally, I grasped for the silver chain of magic energy. This spell was stronger than anything I had encountered so far. Something was pulling at me, not at my body, but at my mind. The blur of movement filled my vision.

I was in a dark place, except for a pillar of light, in which the sorcerer was hovering, weaving gestures of magic into the air with his arms. He hadn’t noticed me yet.

“Stop it!”

He turned around, continuing his spell.

“That’s impossible. You cannot be here…”

Anger rose in me, because he was still harming Maraki.

“I said: STOP IT!”

A golden ray shot out of my mouth, hitting the sorcerer square in his quest. He bent over, his face contorted in agony. Nonetheless, his arms didn’t cease to draw the patterns of power. In a reflexive motion, I extended my hands, palms showing to him. Two more rays of golden light joined the one coming from my mouth. The blue-robed man was writhing suspended in the light, his arms hanging down without live at last. His body was fracturing; tiny rifts, having the color of embers, spread like spider-webs from the focal point of the rays. I felt drawn away; everything around me blurred again.

I was back in my body, lying on my side. My head was swimming and the pain in my shoulder told me that I had hit the ground with it first. I opened my eyes. The Nuzr was standing some steps away. I looked over to the sorcerer. He was crouched on the floor, holding his head and coughing white foam.

“You filthy son of a bitch… you’ll pay for this!”

I turned my head back. The Nuzr was holding a whip in his hands. He drew back his arm for the first lash. I closed my eyes. The whip cracked, but the pain didn’t come. I opened my eyes. Maraki had caught the lash with his back. His eyes pressed to slits, he moved around in a swift motion and tackled the Nuzr. He crashed sideways into the bars, and the sound of cracking ribs echoed through the room. Unconscious, he dropped down.

“Ma shach ul shadd’ay, nuzr da yenai!”

The sorcerer, cowering on the floor, issued some more orders in Nur’Zhul. With his sword drawn, one of the guards kept Maraki in check while the other one dragged the Nuzr out of the cell. Moving backwards, the other one picked up the whip. Both left the cell, closed it and locked the door. The guard with the whip helped the warlock to his feet. The white-haired man pushed him away.

“How did you do that?”

His voice was labored. Nothing of the friendliness of our first meeting was left in it. Even if I had wanted to, I couldn’t have told him. I didn’t know.

“It felt like magic itself consuming me from the inside. Untamed, wild magic!”

He made a step towards the bars but stopped dead in his tracks. He had realized that he had revealed more than he should have and that there was nothing he could do right now. The sorcerer gathered himself and, with a wave of his hand, commanded the group to leave. The door was locked with the heavy iron bolt. It was over.

I turned to Maraki. He was staring at me like I was a ghost.

“Why didn’t you tell me you’re a sorcerer?”

His voice was breaking, full of disappointment. I crossed the distance between us and hugged him around his waist, burying my face into his abs. He didn’t move away, but he didn’t return the embrace either.

“I’m not a sorcerer. Please, believe me.”

Tears formed in my eyes, rolling down Maraki’s stomach. Letting him down hurt more than anything else that had happened to me this Cycle.

“I never lied to you.”

Maraki’s arms closed around me.

“I believe you. But obviously you left out some details about yourself…”

He caressed my back. I let go of him and sought his eyes.

“Don’t be mad at me. I’ll take care of your wound while I’ll tell you, okay?”

His gaze was full of friendliness, the animosity gone. He pulled me close to him again.

“I can’t be mad at you. I can’t. I’ll sit down and you’ll tell me.”

He took place close to the water basin while I ripped off a strip of the cloak and cleansed it in the cold water. I began to nurse the injury. The whip had drawn blood, but the cut wasn’t too deep. His Ogrushkai flesh would heal in no time.

“I’m no sorcerer. That is: I have no control over my abilities.”

I was telling about my powers for the first time. I didn’t even reveal them to my uncle, though he might have suspected about them.

“Except some simple tricks, most of the things I do are like reflexes. When the Nur’Zhul tried to torture me with magic, I resisted. When they tried to pry the location of the trinket out of my mind, I blocked out their efforts. When I broke the subduing jinx on you, I did so without thinking. But using offensive spells for attack or breaking from this jail is beyond what I can do.”

Once more, I dipped the makeshift bandage into the cold water.

“Sometimes, I can feel when magic is being worked. It gives me shivers or goose bumps. I can see magic. Not the fireball flying around, that’s what everyone can see, but the pattern behind it.”

I put the wet cloth on his wound, coming close to his ear.

“There’s one thing I can do at will, but for your own safety, I can’t tell you in here. If we ever come out of this hole, I’ll show you. I promise.”

I had kept my voice so low that I wasn’t even sure whether Maraki had understood till he nodded most subtly.

“What I’ve done to the Councilor, I don’t know. Something like that has never happened before.”

I was speaking at normal volume again.

“Whatever it was, you scared the wits out of him and hurt him, really hurt him. When the spell on me broke, he was screaming at the top of his lungs. He only stopped when the Nuzr pushed you away from me.”

I recounted what I had experienced inside his mind.

“He’ll think twice before he uses magic on us again.”

“I hope so.”

There was one more thing that I wanted to get off my mind. Though it was casual, I didn’t know how to start. Instead of talking, I planted a kiss on Maraki’s cheek. He blushed.

“What was that for?”

“I want to thank you for catching the whip lash and attacking the guard.”

“You freed me from the spell. We’re friends. We’ve to take care of each other, protect each other.”

Soothing warmth spread through my body, caused by the deep rumble of his words. Into this feeling of harmony, an unsettling thought intruded like a cold gust of wind.

“Why did they ignore you when the Nuzr threatened to kill me? You’re far more dangerous than I am. Why didn’t they take care of you first?”

“Perhaps, they thought I wouldn’t mind you being killed. You’re the only reason why I’m here.”

He turned his head around; the muscles in his shoulders clamped.

“I… I didn’t mean… I didn’t want to…”

I put my hand on his neck, patting it.

“It’s the truth. You’re only here because of me.”

Maraki relaxed.

“I’m quite sure they’re well aware of what happens in this cell. They have to know that you and I have become friends; they have to know how close we are.”

“So you think this incident was staged? But why?”

“That’s a really good question.”

***

Councilor Ramesh placed the focus crystal before him on the ritual carpet, on which he was kneeling. He extended both arms, palms facing upwards, and bowed in respect. Closing his eyes, he reached out for his master in the far away city of Nur’Khal. The presence of the Mogul Emperor took shape in his mind. Over this distance, it was a roughly human form only, but still vibrant of power. Having someone inside his inner self was unsettling given this afternoon’s events. His mental simulacrum bent down in reverence before his liege.

“Your mind is in turmoil, its voice wavering. Did the plan fail?”

The voice of the Mogul Emperor was soft, silken, and still every word cut deeply into the Councilor’s soul.

“No, my liege. The plan succeeded though not as expected.”

“Your mind speaks of pain, yours and others’. You must share with us.”

“The Nuzr was attacked by the Ogrushkai. His wounds are treated as we are speaking. As you have predicted, the Ogrushkai has become protective of the thief Elyran.”

“The mind of the Taker is chattering with charm. The mind of the Tormentor is sighing with delight.”

Ramesh felt the power of the Mogul Emperor flowing through him.

“The Taker is the source of your pain. Elaborate for us.”

“Yes, my liege. I was subduing the Ogrushkai when the thief Elyran used wild magic to counter the spell.”

“The Taker intruded into your inner sanctum, right here. The echoes of his mind are faint, but when you know what to listen for, they resonate clearly. A new pattern, but strangely familiar.”

“Yes, my liege. He attacked me with a power I haven’t encountered before. It almost obliterated my inner self.”

“This power is not common, but not unheard of. This magic is old, older than your mind. Do not be ashamed of your ignorance.”

“No, my liege.”

“You have taken from the Tormentor what we require. Bring it to us with trusted couriers, fast as the Eastern Winds.”

“Of course, my liege.”

“Your mind screams of revenge. But the Taker is of interest to us. When he reveals the location of the Key, he must not be disposed of. Take him to us then. The Tormentor is without worth. Do with him as you please when his mind has fulfilled its task.”

“I’ll do as you command, my liege.”

“That is what your mind has been brought to Tenegra for.”

The presence of the Mogul Emperor retreated. Councilor Ramesh opened his eyes. He would have liked to end the life of this impertinent thief himself, but disobeying his master would mean punishment worth a hundredfold death.