God Mage (9 page)

Bren held his breath as the first soldier
passed the secret entrance, passing by without any hint that he had
found anything. For a moment Bren thought that the entrance would
go unnoticed, then an old soldier who walked by the mountain
banging the hilt of his dagger on the rock face called out to the
others pointing toward the hidden entrance.

Bren didn’t know what to do, but the other
generals didn’t seem to be as unsure. As one, the four other
soldiers with him raised their hands, and the ground under the
entrance began to tremble and opened up to expose a hole filled
with sharpened sticks. Four of the Brotherhood soldiers fell inside
the trap, but it didn’t deter them from searching for a way to open
the secret door.

Bren panicked and pulled in the only magical
energy that gathered around him in mass and called to the earth.
For a moment, it felt as if the whole mountain would fall around
them as Bren let loose a torrent of energy that caused the whole
ground in front of the hidden entrance to erupt in thin spikes that
looked as if thousands of swords the size of a man had simply
jumped out of the earth.

As Bren slumped against the entrance to the
cliff, the eyes that had looked at him earlier with awe and
surprise now looked at him in fear. Bren felt a little pang in his
chest at the looks but pushed it aside. Now was not the time to
worry about how people he barely knew looked at him.

Turning his attention back to the
Brotherhood, Bren noticed that they had pulled back from the
mountain and were headed back to the large field outside of the
forest. His attack as flashy and as big as it had been had done
little damage. Less than a hundred soldiers had been within the
range of the stone swords but it had forced them to retreat and
that was a victory, even if it was just a small one. That was the
problem with magic. It could be deadly, but it was much easier to
use against a single opponent than many at once, and even then,
experience was the key, and Bren was severely lacking in that.

A few hours after the Brotherhood had pulled
back, Bren noticed that they had started cutting trees down from
the forest and constructing the beginnings of a fort. The next
morning, it became clear that the Brotherhood had no planes to
venture into the deadly forest again, and Bren breathed a sigh of
relief.

Shortly after the sun reached its apex in the
sky, a messenger arrived, telling Bren that the elders wished to
speak with him again. Unlike on the way up, Bren didn’t hesitate to
use magic to light his path as he made his way back toward the
village through the dark tunnel.

Bren found his other friends waiting for him
outside the elders’ building. Most of them had a tired and run-down
look on their face, but it was Faye’s look that pained him the
most. Bren could see that she had not slept in days, and her hands
shook slightly as she looked at him. He knew that the battle a few
nights before had been hard on her, but it seemed that it was much
worse than he had thought.

Without thinking, Bren wrapped his arm around
Faye’s shoulder and pulled her in close. As soon as her face
touched his chest, he could feel her shaking slightly as she
quietly sobbed. Their guide continued to walk toward the building’s
entrance, but Bren didn’t move to follow until Faye had calmed
down. Once her sobs subsided and her shoulders quit trembling, Bren
gave her a tight squeeze and started walking toward the entrance.
Without letting go, Faye followed him, her hands gripping his shirt
tightly and still slightly trembling.

The pressure he had felt the past three
visits to the building was gone. It would seem that they didn’t see
the need for it, or they feared he would turn it against them once
again. Either way, it made him slightly more at ease knowing that
it was gone.

As they entered the room, Bren noticed that
the elders had drawn looks on their face. Bren hadn’t expected a
happy reunion, but he didn’t expect such a tense atmosphere either.
The auras of the elders were different than normal, though they
still kept them close to the chest, so it made it hard for Bren to
know what they were thinking. All he could tell was that they
didn’t all agree on what was about to be discussed.

An overbearing silence filled the room as
neither party seemed to want to be the first to talk. When it
became clear Bren wasn’t going to be the first to clear the air,
the lead elder cleared his throat and shifted uneasily in his seat.
“Things have become difficult…” The elder said, leaving the thought
unfinished.

“How so?” Bren asked, fishing more for
information. It wasn’t hard to understand what the elder was
getting at, but he wanted to know more about how the elders viewed
the situation, and the only way to do that was to get them to say
more than they wanted to.

“The Brotherhood,” the elder said after a
tense moment of silence. “They have stopped trying to enter the
valley, but it does not look as if they’re going away anytime in
the near future.”

“It does look as if they are planning to
stay,” Bren agreed. “But at least your village is safe for the time
being.”

“Yes, but for how long,” the female elder to
the right said hotly.

“Enough Mina,” the head elder said, turning
toward the older woman. “It is just as she said. Right now, the
Brotherhood has stopped trying to get into the valley, but they
have camped right at our door, making it near impossible for any of
our people to leave, and while we can feed ourselves…”

“You don’t want to stay cut off from the rest
of the world,” Bren said, finishing the man’s thought. “How do you
think we can help?”

“That is where we are having trouble,” the
elder said, shaking his head. “I believe the best choice right now
would be for you to leave and take them with you.”

“We would be more than happy to leave but…”
Bren said, leaving the thought hanging.

“Yes. Lord Hayao has told us what you are
looking for, as well as brought the map that you have brought with
you. I have to agree that we cannot let you leave the village with
such a map. If the Brotherhood got ahold of it again, it would be
disastrous for more than just our village.”

“Then we have a problem,” Bren replied,
raising his voice slightly.

“Maybe not,” the elder replied in a calming
voice. “Hayao said that you were looking for a specific place that
is on the map. Just as you have asked, we have ruled out all the
places that we know of.”

“How many does that leave?” Bren asked
slightly excited.

“Three,” the elder said as he unrolled a
large map of Northern Kurt. The three places the elder spoke of
were each marked with small pins.

“It would be surrounded by mountains. Hard to
reach,” Bren said looking at the map.

“This place is near the Forelia Mountains. It
is hard to reach, and there is a town nearby where you can work
from, though it is not a very hard mountain to scale and should
only take you a few days to search the area.

“That might be it, but from what I
understood, it should be in a more remote location,” Bren said
looking at the map.

“What are you looking for?” The elder asked,
his voice deepening into a near whisper.

Bren thought about keeping it vague but he
knew this was his first real chance to learn what he wanted, and
after a moment of thought, decided there was little reason to keep
it hidden. “I am looking for a hidden valley that is supposed to
hold the key to the doorway to the abyss.”

The female elder said something in a language
that Bren didn’t understand, but it was clear that Bren had touched
on something that had put them on guard. “I would guess that you
know the place I am looking for,” Bren said, getting up from his
chair and advancing toward the elders.

“We know of the place you are talking about,”
the elder said, leaning back in his chair trying to get some
distance from Bren. “Or at least I believe we know where you are
talking about.”

“Then tell me” Bren demanded.

“It is not that simple,” the elder said. “The
place you are looking for is taboo. Each hidden village is tasked
with providing two people every three years to guard the entrance
to the valley. Even if I told you where the valley was at, they
would never allow you to enter it.”

The air in the room grew chilly as ice
crystals began to form on the large window overlooking the city. “I
can be very persuasive,” Bren said as small sparks of energy
flashed around him.

“Calm down,” the elder said in a palliative
tone. “You might be able to get out of the village without trouble
but what about your friends.”

The mention of his friends brought Bren back
to his senses and the air the room quickly began to warm. “Where is
the valley?” Bren asked, placing his hands on the elder’s table and
leaning in close. “No matter what the cost I will learn what I want
to know.”

“Here,” the elder said pointing to a place
far to the north of the village. “It is settled in the Kami
Mountains. There are no towns or villages along the way. Even the
village that we send our children to remains unknown to us.”

“Thank you,” Bren said turning toward the
door. “We will leave in the morning and do our best to take our
friends with us.”

“One thing before you go, Master Torin,” the
elder said half rising from his chair. “The valley of the gods is
sacred to us. It is said to hold the doorway to the home of the
gods. If that is true or not, I don’t know. I have never seen a
god, but remember that a portion of the guardians are made up of
our children.”

“I will do my best to kill as few as
possible,” Bren said continuing on his way toward the door.

As he left the room, the others quickly
followed, but they kept a few steps behind him. “Are you okay?”
Faye asked touching his arm lightly.

“Fine…Why?” Bren said, looking at her and
noticing that her face was pinched tightly.

“You’re still… Sparkling,” Cass said
lightly.

Bren stopped in mid-stride and took a deep
breath and tried to clear his body of the excess magic. “Better?”
Bren asked, once he was sure he was clear of magical energy.

“A little, though the air around you still
seems a bit chilly,” Faye said laughing.

As soon as they were back in their room,
everyone started readying for the journey without Bren having to
say a word. Bren did the same though he kept most of his things in
order, but as he always did when he planned a long journey he
emptied out his father’s old pack and went through it once
again.

There was still a little food stored in the
pack as well as a few canteens of water but not enough to last more
than a few days should they run a dry spell between villages.
“Hayao,” Bren hollered causing the young warrior to come running
from where he had been.

“Yes, Lord Torin,” the man said quickly.

“We need supplies for a long trip,” Bren
said. “Do you think you can get us enough to last us for most of
the trip?”

“Getting the supplies will be easy, my lord,
but we do not keep horses in the village,” Hayao said.

“Don’t worry about that,” Bren replied. “I
have my own ways to carry the supplies over long distances.”

T
he next morning
started long before the sun crested the horizon. As they left
through a dark exit far away from the one they had entered, Bren
caught Hayao looking back with a slight look of loss on his face.
Bren thought about saying something, but nothing he could think of
seemed like the right choice. Bren had left his own home, but he
knew there was always the choice that he could go back. Hayao
didn’t have the same choice.

As soon as they neared the edge of the
forest, Bren called the others to stop. “Hayao take everyone
northeast until you reach the first town and wait for us.”

“What are you planning?” Cass asked following
Bren as he headed in the direction of the Brotherhood’s impromptu
fort.

“Just thinking of getting their attention,”
Bren said.

“So you don’t know what you are going to do
yet,” Cass said laughing lightly.

“No idea, but I am sure that I can come up
with something,” Bren replied.

Bren’s best guess was that it would take a
little under a half hour to reach close enough to the fort to see
it. That wasn’t much time to think of anything but it was enough to
start getting ready for whatever came to mind. With each step, Bren
slowly began to pull in small amounts of magical energy.

Planning something foolish again. Just when
I think that you have shown more brains than your father, you start
to do things like this.

“I don’t plan to do anything foolish,” Bren
said lightly to Thuraman.

Doing anything other than leaving right now
would be foolish. The best choice is to leave and let the
Brotherhood continue to build their little fort.

“And leave the village to deal with them?”
Bren asked shaking his head.

Yes. You don’t owe them anything. It is no
different than allowing them to fight for you. There are always
sacrifices; there is no reason that it has to be you.

“I refuse to lose what little humanity I have
left,” Bren said vehemently. As soon as he said the words in his
mind Bren started to consider just what Thuraman had said. He
doubted that the Brotherhood would be able to get into the valley
easily, and given what had happened a few days beforehand, he
doubted they would even try until they got more men. Bren shook the
thoughts from his mind. The second he began to think in terms of
only what was best for him, he would lose what little of himself he
had been able to take back.

By the time the fort came into view, Bren had
built up a large amount of magical energy, so much that while he
didn’t feel full, it was getting hard to keep it all under control.
If he had to compare it to something, it would be like trying to
lead eight horses at once when all of them wanted to go different
directions.