God Mage (16 page)

“Might just be some of the women you charmed
along the way,” Bren said jokingly.

“We need to wake everyone else, so we can
move on,” Cass said, looking at the others’ sleeping forms.

“Let them rest,” Bren said as Cass turned to
wake them. “This place is dangerous enough without everyone going
without sleep. I have a feeling that we are all going to need to be
at our best if we plan to make it through this place alive.”

“You might be right, but we can’t afford for
the Brotherhood to catch us,” Cass said in a half argument as he
looked at the sky above.

“At least they will have to follow us the old
fashioned way,” Bren said, patting his friend on the back. “No
matter how good he is, I don’t think their mage will be of much use
in this place.”

“That is reassuring at least, though I would
still like a few more days between us and the Brotherhood.”

“We don’t always get what we want,” Bren said
with a half-smile. “Now why don’t you get some sleep, I will wake
everyone once it looks like it’s time to go.”

“Are you sure you can handle watch by
yourself?” Cass asked in a worried tone.

“I will not be by myself,” Bren said with a
wink. “Avalanche is here, and she is far better at hearing
intruders than you or I.”

Avalanche gave him a low bark when she heard
her name and happily padded over to where they were. She still
moved much more cautiously than normal, and she hadn’t left the
safety of the group since they had entered the Deadlands. Most of
the time she would only stay with them while they were in town, the
rest of the time she would go off on her own, and days could pass
before they saw her again. It was normal, and Bren had paid it
little heed, so the fact that she had not left them meant that she
didn’t feel safe here.

Bren took a seat by the fire, set Thuraman
across his lap, and called to Avalanche, who came over and lay down
beside him. Absentmindedly, Bren reached over and started to rub
the top of Avalanches head but the second before his silver fingers
touched her she recoiled away from him. “Sorry,” Bren said as he
moved his hand back to his lap. He had forgotten to wear his
gloves. “Why don’t you like the feel of my skin anymore girl?” Bren
asked the creature lying next to him, but the only answer he got in
reply was the slight tilting of her head.

I would guess that it’s because you have so
much magic running through you. Unlike me, she is not linked to
you, all she feels when you touch her is the large current of magic
running through your body. I would guess that her reaction is more
instinct than fear of you, though she is one thing I have never
figured out. She and I are a lot alike but so very different at the
same time.

“What do you mean?” Bren asked looking from
the staff to Avalanche, trying to see how they were anything
alike.

We were both born of magic. I was created by
your father, and because of him using large amounts of energy, and
the careful way he constructed me, I gained my own conscience.
Avalanche, on the other hand, was born of wild magic. Gems, as you
have been told, are crystallized magic. Sometimes those gems catch
a passing spirit of someone headed to the ether and create heart
stones. When that happens, over time the heart stone builds a body
for itself. She was created by magic, but she was born of something
completely different. I don’t think she remembers, but at one time,
she had a flesh body.

“I thought that creatures like Avalanche
could create new species, but if she was once flesh, wouldn’t she
just make more of what she once was?” Bren asked, trying to imagine
Avalanche as a flesh and blood dog.

Depending on what kind of energy she used
most in the creation of her body, will determine what she will look
like. Your father put a lot of study into this over the years.
Avalanche always intrigued him, and he learned an abundant amount
of information from the magical races. Seeing that they, too, were
created with a heart stone.

“What?” Bren asked as his jaw dropped
slightly. “I thought the magical races were created by their
individual gods.”

I forgot that you only know a little about
the creation of the other races and their gods. Had you stayed in
the tower, you would have learned more, but I doubt the truth of
their birth would have reached your ears unless you searched for
it. Each god was ordered by their mother to make their own army.
Unlike her, they didn’t have the power to easily create life, but
given enough time, they could put enough of their energy into one
place to make a heart stone. Once each had made their own heart
stone, they sought out a soul to inhabit it. I don’t know how they
found the soul nor, how they forced it into the heart stone, but
that was the start of each race.

“But if there was only one of them, how did
they…” Bren started to ask but left the question hanging in the
air.

The first, such as Avalanche, is called an
Alpha and can produce offspring by gathering magical energy as well
as gems. From what your father learned, it can take hundreds of
years for a single birth. The Alphas tend to live thousands of
years, so it is not as if they need to rush things.

“I didn’t know that you knew so much about
Avalanche. Is there anything you don’t know?” Bren asked, more out
of frustration than real interest.

I only know what I have seen and heard. Most
of that knowledge came from your father and some of it from what I
observed on my own. In the end, I learn the same way that humans
do…through experience.

“I guess that makes a bit of sense,” Bren
admitted. “You are far older than I am, so you should know a little
bit more than I do. Just don’t expect me to be thrilled when you
prove it,” Bren added the last with a smile.

Humans… You always want knowledge, but you
don’t like when people have more than you. If you listened to me
half the time, you could skip having to learn the hard way.

“You mean like with Faye?” Bren asked,
knowing where Thuraman was going with the direction of the
conversation.

With women in general. I have told you a
hundred times and will tell you countless more. Your life would be
much better off if you never talked to another woman as long as you
lived. I have found them to be completely different than men in
every way imaginable. They are far smarter to start with and use
that to get what they want with the least amount of effort, and
that means using others to do the work.

“I see,” Bren said mockingly. “I guess I
can’t argue about women being smarter than me, but I won’t admit it
either. The problem with your statement is that you are talking too
broadly. Not all women are like that—I think just my mother,” Bren
said the last bit with a little chuckle. “And maybe my sister.”

You will see what I mean one day. I just
hope that you don’t close your eyes to it like your father did.

Bren shook his head and waited for the staff
to continue its rant, but when nothing more was said, Bren left it
alone and went back to his own musings. He thought about a lot of
things as he sat by the small fire, but mostly of his mother and
sister who were leagues away from where he sat. He had never gotten
along well with either of them, but he still cared for them. Did
that make him stupid or weak as Thuraman said? After giving it a
lot of thought, Bren decided it didn’t matter what it made him. He
alone had to live with his every decision in life, so he would do
what he felt was right no matter how others viewed it.

Suddenly, Avalanche began to growl and Bren
turned his attention back to the small smoke rising from the other
side of the hills. It had not completely disappeared, but it was
getting weaker by the second. That could mean either that the camp
was getting ready to move or that someone had forgotten to add
wood. Bren quickly decided that he wasn’t about to sit around to
find out which one.

O
nce everyone was
awake, they quickly moved out. They tried to lead their horses into
the grass forest, but they refused to budge, so they had to leave
them behind. Cass wanted to see if there was a way around the large
mass of tree-sized grass, but was quickly dissuaded when he was
reminded how close the Brotherhood was behind them. Without the use
of Bren’s magic or the sun’s location, they had to rely on Cass and
his odd instruments to tell what direction they were traveling.
Bren had to give it to Cass, the man was always ready for whatever
was thrown at him. The only real trouble they found was that the
grass was not easy to move through. At first, they tried to cut
through the grass with their weapons, but that quickly proved a
useless attempt. No matter how sharp the sword, the grass would
bend and sway then bounce back right in its original location. With
no other choice, they were forced to push the grass aside to move
forward. To help from losing sight of each other they linked
themselves together with some of the rope that Cass had brought
with him. It didn’t give them much moving room but it was
reassuring that they wouldn’t be separated from each other.

With the thick grass, the only person Bren
could see was Cass who was directly in front of him. Less than a
half hour into the start of the day, Bren began to notice small
cuts on Cass’s arms. With little else to look at besides the grass,
it wasn’t hard for Bren to see more and more cuts appearing on his
friend’s exposed flesh.

“There looks to be a clearing up ahead,” Cass
yelled. “Why don’t we stop and take a short break.”

“Please,” Bren heard one of the other guards
say from the back to the group.

As he exited the tall grass Bren found
himself standing before what he believed was once a desert. He
could still make out where the dunes were, but instead of sand, it
was glass. In the distance, Bren noticed a large bolt of lightning
strike one of the larger dunes sending small flakes of glass into
the sky.

“I thought magic didn’t work on glass.” Bren
silently commented to Thuraman.

It is not the magic in the lightning that is
causing the damage but the force and heat from the initial impact.
Your father became really good at fighting the Brotherhood, even
with their white swords. He would use magic that affected things
around the soldiers and not the soldiers themselves so that their
swords couldn’t stop them from taking damage. He couldn’t use
lightning like you just saw because it would take too much energy
to create a bolt that large, and in the end, it would still only do
a small amount of damage. That is why the dune only lost a little
of its top instead of the whole thing. Next time, why don’t you try
to figure out what is happening on your own instead of asking
me.

“I thought that you liked to show off your
knowledge,” Bren replied sarcastically.

I do and will if it is needed, but you need
to learn to think for yourself. If you always rely on others for
the answer, you will never learn how to understand the changes
around you without help, and right now that could be dangerous. If
you had simply felt and understood what would happen if you tried
to use magic, the trouble the other day would have been avoided. I
understand that you are still young and that it is the nature of
youth to be foolish, but you cannot afford that right now. Think,
look, and then think again before you act; otherwise, you will be
courting death.

Bren took Thuraman’s words to heart. The
staff was right and Bren had to admit it. He knew that the area was
affected by a large amount of magical energy, but he didn’t give it
a second thought when he went to use magic. It was calling to him,
and even though he hadn’t heard it with his ears, he had seized the
first chance he could to try to use it, and it nearly cost him his
sanity and possibly even his life.

Coming out of his self-imposed trance, Bren
looked around to see that everyone was now out of the grass forest
and sitting around treating the numerous small cuts that covered
their bodies. Bren looked at his own body but didn’t find a single
nick on his skin. Running his fingers lightly across his bare arm,
Bren once again wondered if the change in his body was a gift or a
curse. Like most things, it would depend on how one looked upon it.
Right now, it was a gift because it saved him from the grass’s
wrath, but when he wished to feel without worry, it became a curse.
Even worse, when he felt the need to use magic and couldn’t, it was
like a large stone around his neck.

“If anyone needs it, I have some gut and
needles,” Cass said, holding up the small medical bag he always
carried with him.

“The cuts weren’t that bad were they?” Bren
asked looking around.

“Some of mine were quite deep,” Cass said,
showing Bren a rather large and deep cut on his knee. “Cut straight
through my leather leggings and still took a chunk out of my
leg.”

Bren turned to Faye and gave her a worried
look. “Are you okay?” Bren asked, his voice steady but his eyes
shaking slightly. It was then that Bren noticed the many cuts all
over the girl’s small body. Unlike Cass and the other guards, Faye
wore no armor and only had on a thin dress, which while well-made,
couldn’t stop the razor sharp blades of grass from cutting into her
whole body.

Bren pulled his pack from his back and
checked it over and was happy to find that the grass had not
touched it either. Opening it, Bren pulled a couple of his newer
shirts and quickly ripped them up into small squares. Once they
were a size they could easily be handled, Bren pulled out a bottle
of alcohol and soaked one of the rags.

Faye protested a little at first when he
began to clean her wounds but quickly learned that Bren wasn’t
going to let them go as they were. Two of the cuts were bad enough
that Bren had to borrow Cass’s gut to stitch them up. Once he was
finished, he pulled one of Faye’s other dresses from his bag and
handed it to her with a weak smile.