Shadowmage tok-2 Page 11

  Coming to a stop, Lucius turned back and shouted a challenge at the pursuing men, calling out the bearded man in the lead.

  "Hey, pig!" he bellowed. "Was your mother wedded to a hog, or was she a sow whore putting it to every merchant in the city?"

  He was answered by an angry, inarticulate cry, and the mob surged up towards him. Smiling, Lucius bolted. It never failed.

  Hearing the clatter of leather on cobbles gaining ground on him, Lucius tried to measure his breathing as he sought the strands of energy that were never far from his grasp. Control of his magic was difficult while sprinting, but he was only attempting rudimentary control. He caught the needed thread, feeling its power flush through his entire body. Feeling a new wave of strength, he banished all thought of fatigue and ignored his aching legs as he gained in speed, pulling away from the mob.

  Within seconds, Lucius was in the territory of the second collection team, and he saw the surprised looks of their watchmen.

  "Guild men!" he shouted, jabbing a finger over his shoulder. They reacted instantly, one diving into a shop front to retrieve his collectors while the others melted away into side streets. Lucius grinned, satisfied that the other thieves were retreating to places of safety. It took just one more glance over his shoulder to remind him that he was still in great danger himself. The expressions on the faces of the mob left no doubt as to his fate should he be caught.

  Deciding that the chase had gone on long enough, he darted right, vaulting over a fence that ran round a small townhouse. Hitting the ground in a roll, he found himself in an unkempt garden, full of uncut thigh-high grass and weeds. He bolted across the small patch of wilderness and swung his legs over the low wall on the other side. Behind, the Guild's men were cursing as they became entangled in the undergrowth, but enough were making good headway to convince Lucius not to slow down.

  Over the wall, Lucius found himself in a smaller street, its buildings a mixture of shabby houses and shops whose owners were unable to afford the prices commanded on the Street of Dogs. He ran a short distance past the nearest buildings, then jerked left into a narrow alley, intending to lose the men in the network of twisting turns and junctions that were common in these districts of Turnitia.

  After a few more minutes, Lucius felt safe enough to stop and catch his breath, leaning against the brickwork of an abandoned house. The magic that had propelled him this far and this fast was now ebbing, and a deep fatigue spread through his body. The complaints his bones made at having been pushed so hard were finally heard. Crouching down as he drew in painful gasps of air, he rubbed his ankles for some relief, but he stopped when he heard new cries coming from a short distance away. They were just one or two streets over from where he stood.

  Fearing one of his fellow thieves had been caught, Lucius forced himself to his feet, shoving the weariness away. He retraced his steps cautiously, heading down a short road that led back toward the Street of Dogs. More calls echoed off the walls of the nearby buildings, and he dove into a doorway as three Guild men ran out of an alleyway a few yards ahead of him, coming to a stop in the middle of the road as they looked about them. Pressing himself against the door, Lucius carefully tilted his head to watch them. They were obviously having a disagreement as to which way they should run next, which was finally resolved by one returning the way they had come, while the other two dashed up towards the Street of Dogs.

  Lucius released a breath he'd not realised he had been holding, then caught it again as the door behind him opened, which forced him to grab onto the frame to stop himself stumbling. Turning around, he saw a small girl in a dirty shirt looking up at him expectantly. Winking at her and smiling, he fished out a silver tenth from his pouch and flipped it to her, before running across the road into another alley.

  Finding himself between two rows of houses, Lucius saw alleys criss-crossing every thirty yards or so and he skidded to a halt at every junction, checking each intersection. Another shout of anger, and the clash of metal on metal from up ahead spurred him on, and he rounded a corner in time to see Swinherd pull a knife from the belly of a Guild man, who collapsed, sobbing, onto the hard ground. Another watcher who had been on Lucius' team stepped out from another alley and, on seeing what had happened, patted Swinherd on the back. Lucius, dismayed, ran towards them.

  "What have you done?" he said in a harsh whisper. "What have you done?"

  "Bastard tried to jump me," Swinherd said, kicking the man as he groaned and clasped his hands to his stomach in a fruitless attempt to stem the flow of blood.

  "Why didn't you just keep on running? You should have just ran!"

  Swinherd shrugged. "I was trying to hook up with you guys again. I had to defend myself!"

  "Yeah, back off a moment," said the watchman, who seemed to take greater offence at Lucius' interruption that Swinherd had.

  "So we have a dead Guild man on our hands. So what? One less suits us just fine, I say." The watchman bent down to look the dying man in the face. "You hear that, you worthless bastard? You're going to die soon."

  "You fools!" said Lucius, trying to keep both his temper and voice low. He could not see why these two did not understand what was at stake. "Up to now, we have just had a few beatings here and there. This is the first time a Hand has killed someone in the Guild."

  When they just looked at him blankly, he sighed and continued, speaking a little slower so his meaning would not be lost. "They are going to be after our blood now."

  The watchman looked at Swinherd, then at the dying man, then back at Lucius. "Well… we could hide the body."

  Lucius rolled his eyes. "Where? You planning on hoisting it over one of these walls? One way or another, the Guild will find the body, and even if they don't they'll guess what has happened when he doesn't show up at their guildhouse."

  "So what do we do?" Swinherd asked, now suddenly less elated at his victory.

  Thinking hard, Lucius scratched the back of his head. "We've got to get back to Magnus, tell him what has happened."

  "You going to tell him it was me?" Swinherd said in a quiet voice.

  "Believe me, he is going to have far greater things to worry about than punishing you."

  They split up again, after bearing a lecture from Lucius as to how they would not go looking for more Guild men. They were to take their separate paths back to the guildhouse and get there as quickly as possible.

  He just hoped Magnus would have the wisdom to see a way through this, and perhaps make some compensation towards the Guild. The alternative was too terrible to contemplate.

  CHAPTER 8

  Lucius cursed as the small ball of fire ignited another roll of paper. For the third time in a row. Behind him, he heard Adrianna quietly clack her tongue, though whether it was in amusement or impatience, he could not decide.

  Moving quickly for an older man, Forbeck kicked it to one side and stamped out the flames, before replacing it with another roll.

  "Try again, Mr Kane."

  As the sun descended beyond the western horizon, Lucius had felt a curious itch in the back of his mind. A prickling on the nape of his neck. Unable to shake the sensation, he had left the guildhouse and the turmoil it had fallen into, and quickly realised the feeling grew stronger as he headed north, but weaker when he turned aside from the path.

  Arriving at an abandoned warehouse, the itching growing ever more insistent, he discovered this was Forbeck's way of summoning him to their first lesson. Lucius was at first irritated at having been called in this manner, but quickly found himself curious as to the measure of subtle control needed for such magic. Knowing the master had managed to pick him out of the entire population of the city, then plant the urge to follow the signal was impressive, and it left him wanting to know exactly how it was achieved. Forbeck, however, had other plans for that evening, and Adrianna was her usual implacable self.

  Within the empty confines of the dusty and cobweb-strewn warehouse, Forbeck had devised a simple test to measure Lucius' control
of his talent. Having quickly divined that Lucius was capable of conjuring fire at will, six rolls of paper had been placed in a row, and Lucius had been asked to summon a small ball of flame, and weave it in and out of the spaces while leaving the papers intact.

  It was not an easy test, and Lucius was growing more frustrated with each attempt.

  He had thought it a simple challenge when Forbeck had initially spelled it out and, ignoring Adrianna's knowing look, Lucius' first try had blasted the first three rolls into cinders. By the third attempt, he had managed to guide the fireball around the first roll, but had watched helplessly as it wobbled into the second. The trial seemed to be going nowhere fast.

  The problem was that Lucius had never, since he had first realised his gift with magic, tried to exercise such precise control for anything more than influencing tumbling dice for a split second. Calling upon the power to blast an enemy with a jet of flame, sending him reeling to the ground with the force of the strike even as the fire consumed him, was relatively easy. Aside from the shaping of the necessary energies, it required very little control whatsoever. Just creating and maintaining a small globe of swirling flames for more than a few seconds was enough to make Lucius break into a sweat. Guiding it with precision was seemingly impossible, though Forbeck had earlier demonstrated a successful attempt at the exercise to prove it was not.

  "Remember, all it takes is practice," Forbeck said, as he watched Lucius frown in concentration.

  Kneeling, Lucius opened his right hand as a bright spark ignited upon his palm. Growing into a sphere of rolling fire half the size of his fist, he placed his hand on the stone floor and willed the flames to tumble forwards. The fire bounced once and, before he could arrest its momentum, bumped gently into the first roll of paper, lighting it immediately.

  "Practice makes perfect," Lucius muttered. "I'm getting worse!"

  "Did you really think you would come here, accomplish everything laid before you with so little effort and then leave, smug in the knowledge that there is nothing you cannot do?" Adrianna said.

  Lucius bit his tongue to forestall the first retort that came to mind. "That was not my first thought, no," he finally said.

  A rap echoed across the rafters and walls of the warehouse as Forbeck struck his cane on the hard stone, silencing the argument brewing between his students.

  "I wish I could tell you there was an easy way through this part, Mr Kane," he said, replacing the burnt roll. "I wish there was some secret meditative technique, or command word, that would allow you to control your magic as I have asked. But I am afraid there is not. The only route to success lies in practice, practice, practice. Master your frustration at failure, and direct your energies to trying again."

  Narrowing his eyes and laying his palm flat once more, Lucius called upon his magic to bring another fire globe into existence, but this one just fizzled away after the first few sparks.

  He sighed. "I am not sure I am in the best frame of mind for this today."

  "Have you ever had trouble making your talent do what you want before?" Forbeck asked.

  Lucius thought for a moment. "No. Not since the early days anyway."

  "I would guess that is because you have only ever used your magic when your life was in peril, or perhaps occasionally for your own amusement. You have never had to influence with such delicate control before."

  "Taking the path of least resistance," Adrianna said, but they both ignored her.

  "Please, try again," Forbeck said. "Forget the distractions of your ordinary life and fill your mind with the magic. There should be nothing else."

  Taking a deep breath, Lucius looked at the line of paper rolls before him. The truth was that distractions were intruding on his thoughts. Marching back to the guildhouse earlier that day, Lucius had been filled with dread. He knew they had failed utterly in their mission on the Street of Dogs; the disruption to the collections could be excused — but the death of the Guild man in the skirmish after could not.

  They had confronted Magnus, all twelve thieves assigned to the task and, upon hearing what Swinherd had done, the guildmaster had fought visibly to control his anger. The shadow across his face had subsided quickly, but he had told them all how very disappointed he was in them. That seemed worse somehow. Though they all knew that it was Swinherd that bore the brunt of blame, they also all felt in some measure responsible. It had after all, happened on their watch.

  Ordering the rest of the Hands to keep a low profile in the city over the next few days, he clearly hoped there would be no direct retaliation, that the Guild would see the senselessness of direct action and chalk the death down to over exuberance on the part of some of its members. It was, after all, what he would be inclined to do in their place. However, Lucius was not so sure. There was a dark feeling in the pit of his stomach that refused to be silenced, and it had been troubling him all day, as if they were now just waiting for the hammer to fall. It was certainly affecting his concentration now.

  Lucius aimed the next fireball to the side of the first paper roll, thinking that he could at least bypass the obstacle with little effort on his part. As the globe slowly bounced past the paper, he half-closed his eyes as he tried to imagine an invisible thread between it and himself. Gently, he pulled on the connection, willing it to veer to the left and therefore bounce between the first two rolls.

  The fiery globe seemed to hesitate just a few inches above the floor then, with infinite slowness it seemed to Lucius, curved a lazy arc between the rolls. It was not a neat line, but the globe now bobbed on the other side of the rolls, close to the second. He could feel the connection between himself and the fire grow complicated and tenuous, but he took a breath and willed it forward just a little, then started a new curve to the right, to take it past the second roll and onto the third.

  As the fire globe slowly drifted in the new direction, he allowed himself a smile of satisfaction. The break in his thoughts was enough to sever the link he had so far maintained, and the ball suddenly picked up speed, veered left and right randomly, then headed straight for the third roll, blasting it to cinders.

  "Damn it!" he shouted, frustration getting the better of him.

  "Easy, my boy," Forbeck said, placing the end of his cane on Lucius' shoulder, as if to restrain his anger. It caused him to turn round to face the other two Shadowmages.

  "You may not believe me, but you are doing well to get so far so quickly," Forbeck continued. "We have been here little more than an hour, and you are showing the ability to influence your magic beyond the point of egress, to maintain a physical form for several seconds, and to guide it with growing precision. I do not know if I recall seeing someone with so much ready aptitude."

  Lucius noticed Adrianna's eyes narrow suspiciously at this, but he said nothing. Scoring cheap points against her was not the way to an easy life, he had long ago realised. Forbeck fell silent with his own thoughts for a moment, then focussed back on Lucius.

  "Let's try another tact," he said, pacing a half circle round Lucius before leaning on his cane with both hands. "Tell me how you see your magic. What do you imagine when you call upon the power?"

  "The same as you, I would think," Lucius said.

  "Indulge an old man," Forbeck said, smiling. "What do you see?"

  "Well… It's always there, to one degree or another. You kind of get used to it. It's like I can see many different lines, strands, umm… threads, I suppose. Not see them for real, but they are in my head somewhere. They all wrap around one another as they go off into the distance, spinning round and round, crossing one another's path. I sort of reach in and pick out the one I need, and I feel it right here," he said, putting a hand on his chest. "After that, I can direct and shape the energy into what I need it to do."

  "Fascinating," Forbeck muttered. Lucius noticed he glanced briefly at Adrianna, who raised her eyebrows in an expression that seemed to suggest she had won an argument between them.

  "And what, exactly, are you able to d
o with these threads?" Forbeck asked. "How can you manifest your power? What can you do?"

  Lucius shrugged. "Create fire, as you can see, though normally I only use that to start a camp fire — or catch an enemy off guard. I can increase my strength and speed for a short time, send a stone flying through the air, cloak myself in shadows, bend the branches of a tree, umm… well, whatever I need, really."

  He purposefully did not mention the darker aspects of his talent, the powers he knew were at his call but had always seemed black, ruinous… evil. He saw Forbeck was eyeing him with a calculating look, seeming to measure him by the ounce.

  "You may be a truly remarkable individual, Mr Kane," Forbeck said quietly.

  This puzzled Lucius, for he had expected some ridicule, especially from Adrianna, for how little his abilities had progressed over the years. The test with the rolls of paper was clearly an exercise in humiliation for him.

  "What do you mean?" he asked.

  Forbeck paused again as he marshalled his thoughts. When he finally spoke, his voice was slow and measured. "Every Shadowmage visualises their power in a different way. However, there are common themes. Most see it as a centralised concentration of power." Seeing Lucius frown at that, Forbeck tried to quantify his remark. "They see something like a large cloud, a lake, or maybe a river. They fuel their magic by metaphorically reaching into that source, scooping out the gas or water, and then forming it into what they need."

  "I don't see anything like that," Lucius said.

  "No. And that is what makes you at least a little different. Tell me, Mr Kane, what you know about the fundamental properties of magic. What is it do you think, that guides what a practitioner, be they Shadowmage, wizard, witch or priest, and limits what he can ultimately achieve?"

  "I am not sure I know," Lucius said doubtfully. "Practice, I suppose, as you said."