Out of the Mountain (5 page)

“What did you see in the premonition?” Rowan’s soft voice interrupted my thoughts, surprising me.

“It was a blur of creatures in shadow, destroying Velia and killing innocent people in their search for me.”

“I am going to assume that would be why they sent you sooner.” Kel paled.

“Yes,” I agreed with a nod. The mere thought of those red eyes, teeth dripping blood . . . I shuddered.

“You are safe under my protection,” Rowan said firmly, turning his back to us as he continued to lead the way. I blinked, and a slow grin spread at his sentiment, unable to stop myself. Kel chuckled at our expense.

“Are those creatures what you call the Shuni?” I returned to the original topic uncertainly. Kel snorted and I scowled at him.

“I don’t mean to laugh at you. It is just a delight to see how very naïve to the darkness of the world that you are. If only we could all be so lucky! No, I suspect what you saw were creatures created by the use of dark magic. Shadows come to life! We call them the Shade.” He finished with an angry tone that surprised me.

“Dark magic?” I questioned, unsure of the full meaning. Obviously it was bad magic, but to what extent? How did they wield it?

“Dark magic is any magic weaved with ill intent. Almost all of it can be equated to blood magic. It is used by those who are callous, power hungry, and immoral. Those who would try to tip the balance into evil’s favor. It comes at a high cost; most go mad with its use,” Kel explained with distaste apparent on his face.

“So then what are the Shuni?” I prompted curiously.

“The Shuni are conjurers. They do not possess the same kind of elemental magic that you are accustomed to seeing with the Conduits. They don’t wield the magic as much as that they are made of magic; it comes from within them, bound to their blood. Each ancestral bloodline can shift into the form of an animal. The origin of the Shuni is complicated.” He replied.

“Well, we have nothing but time, so keep explaining! It was just getting interesting!” I pressed him on.

“Long ago, there was a battle for the land. There were no kingdoms, no hierarchy. It was basically a free-for-all. As you can imagine, it didn’t take long for people to decide they needed someone to be in charge, and so the battles began. Both good and evil set out on quests to conquer a place of their own in what is now referred to as the First War. Many things are said to have come into being in the First War. People were traveling far and wide and discovering that their world was much more vast and full of diversity than they had ever known! Different skin, different languages, different magic!

“Many men gained followers, soldiers, power, and land by making promises, taking the villages under their protection, and doing all they could to manage it from afar. The men who were successful and survived these battles were the men who were the first monarchs, the self-made kings and the beginning of the royal lines. Each of these men was exceptional in power and influence, without which they would have easily fallen under the pressures that befell them.

“There were also those who were as equally powerful and influential on the side of dark magic. One evil sorceress and her coven in particular were believed to have been the first to discover and use blood magic. The sorceress bathed in the blood of her victims and gained power—real power—and though it came with a cost, they took full advantage. Studying, creating new spells and rituals. They were a force to be reckoned with. It was this very same coven who experimented with blood magic in battle, somehow managing to force the conjurers into the very animals that had been summoned and trained to fight alongside them.

“Chaos ensued as they became trapped inside the animal forms, sharing a consciousness that was unnatural and unstable. The sorceress thought she had claimed victory. She traveled far, winning every battle by using the same spell and trapping all that she could into animal form. The spell called for a sacrifice of life, and with each battle she won, her own following dwindled. Drunk with the power, she trudged on, and thousands were changed and trapped. She was winning the war!

“Then something that she hadn’t expected began to happen. Those whose minds stayed intact after the change eventually began to be able to conjure their own bodies back, their minds becoming one with the animals so that they could share one consciousness. The power of the animals’ consciousness becoming one with their own made them even stronger than before. These became the Shuni.

“A man of great power, who would later become the first Shuni king, took charge by rallying them together and taking the final battle of the First War to the sorceress and her coven. They won by using the extra power she had unwittingly given them,” he said with a clap of his hands and bowing with a flourish at the finish of his story. My mind was spinning with new information. So the moral of the story was that blood magic was unpredictable at best. I looked Kel over appraisingly.

“You are Shuni?” I asked even though I knew what the answer must be. He had used conjuring magic, after all.

“Yes,” Kel replied with a smile.

“What do you shift into?” I asked, excited at this new form of magic. There was so much to be learned. My world view was expanding at such a rapid pace . . . it was proving more and more difficult to keep up.

“That is something for another day,” he said, grinning, and I sighed loudly, causing Rowan to turn and glare at me over his shoulder. I took a good look at him and smiled.

“Rowan is Shuni too,” I said. He stopped and turned to look at me.

“What reason do you have to think it?” he asked, and I thought for a moment that maybe I was wrong before deciding that I knew I wasn’t.

“I saw yellow eyes in the forest that night . . . you’re going to tell me that it wasn’t you?” I challenged, and he growled, turning and continuing his fast pace. Busted.

“It was you!” I said smugly.

“Yes, it was,” he snapped, and I quickly realized that must have meant that he had allowed me to rest the whole night; he had watched over me and kept me safe. My heart warmed a little more toward him.

“Now I know why you growl so much.” I snickered, and Kel joined in when Rowan growled again.

“You said I would learn to conjure?” I gasped when my mind finally caught up with itself. Did that mean . . . ?

“Yes, you are Shuni as well.” Kel grinned proudly.

“That can’t be true. I’ve never shifted into any animal form. I have never successfully used magic of any sort,” I grumbled. I was starting to seriously wonder if they had the wrong girl.

“The block,” Kel said, tapping his temple in amusement. I hadn’t believed there was a block, but maybe it was true. I had spent my life wishing for more, hoping I wasn’t quite as ordinary as I seemed. Even the monks, who weren’t Conduits, had their own sort of power. I was the only person who had no power to my name. I had fallen into a sort of depression for a while, reading the fantastical adventures in books that I wished I could be a part of. It seemed silly, but I had always yearned for more. Maybe that was why I was so willing to believe everything that was happening. I wanted it to be true with all of my being.

“Can I do it now?” I asked, excitedly jumping up and down.

“We do not have time for this!” Rowan exclaimed, and I frowned at him.

“He’s right, dear. We must hurry to safety. We have been lucky thus far, but I can sense danger near,” Kel said, and Rowan nodded, hurrying his pace.

I hadn’t taken time to realize that out here in the forest we weren’t safe. The monks had told me that with the block I would be safe, but Kel said he had removed that block. I had done exactly what Master Liung had said not to by straying from our path and costing time. Would we be in danger? Suddenly plagued with nerves, my eyes couldn’t stop searching for shadows in the forest. As the light fell in the sky, both my companions became more and more frantic with their pace. We traveled all day until finally the trees started to thin, and in the distance I could see some kind of large border fence.

“Please tell me that’s our destination?” I inquired eagerly. My legs were screaming, my feet aching. I had never walked this much in my life . . .

I heard a noise from the forest behind us and froze. Within an instant Rowan was in my line of sight, hand to my lips to quiet me. I couldn’t help the fire that lit in my belly at the contact of his skin on mine. His honey-colored eyes held me in an intense gaze, and for a moment I forgot how to breathe. Another loud sound pulled me out of my daze, and I looked around, unable to see anything in the darkening forest. When a shadow appeared in the shade of a tree, Rowan grabbed me by the hand.

“Run!” Kel shouted, and I saw a sword appear in his hand. Fire spread along the blade and pierced through the darkening forest. Rowan pulled me as fast as my feet could carry me through the rest of the trees. He altered his trajectory to keep us in the barely visible beams of light that were slipping through the dense canopy of leaves. The light was fading and more shadows were appearing at the edges of my vision. I fought the panic as we neared the edge of the trees and busted into the last rays of evening light. He pulled me to a stumbling stop, and we both turned to look back into the shadow of trees. Kel and his flaming blade were nowhere to be seen. I tried to run back in the direction of the forest on instinct, but Rowan wouldn’t let me go.

“We have to go back and help him!” I yelled in disbelief.

“What would you accomplish but to get yourself killed?” Rowan growled at me, and I was an inch away from taking the fighting skills I had learned and putting them to use. I was sizing up my opponent when I heard the clearing of a throat behind us.

“You guys ready or what?” Kel asked, a smile splitting his face . . . completely unscathed and unruffled.

“How did you—never mind, let’s go!” I yelped as I observed the red eyes lining the edges of the forest. Fear gripped me as I began running toward the imposing wall ahead. It spread in both directions farther than my eyes could see. There was a sentry patrolling the top of the wall, and he yelled at someone to open the gate. I heard the gears turning and saw the huge gates lift. I felt relief as we stepped through and it slid shut behind us. I sensed a rush of power as it did.

“Wards,” Kel answered my thoughts.

I took deep breaths, trying to still my frantic heart beat as I took in the sight beyond the wall. I couldn’t see anything beyond the men and women, dressed in the same head-to-toe black uniform as Rowan, who were milling about between rows of log housing. Perfectly pristine and identical buildings surrounded a much larger structure in the center, which, Kel informed me, was Guard Headquarters. Everyone stopped to stare at us as we passed, and I felt uneasy. Kel took my arm in his and smiled reassuringly at me. I stiffened at first, unused to such unwarranted contact, but I found the gesture oddly comforting.

We followed Rowan into Guard HQ, and I took in the front room, which was decorated in varying shades of white and tan, and watched as Rowan ignored the clerk at the front desk and continued on into the building. I stopped, unsure if I should wait or follow. Rowan turned and motioned for me to come with an exasperated expression that I was beginning to get accustomed to. Kel barely suppressed his chuckle.

In the main room of the Guard HQ, a huge table stood as the centerpiece, covered in maps and papers and surrounded by an array of mismatched chairs. An assortment of weapons hung on the walls, liveningng up the décor from the front room quite a bit. There were a few separate doors on the back wall that I noted were all closed. People were just beginning to stare when the boss walked in.

“Clear the room,” I heard someone bark from behind us, and as I turned to see who the speaker was, everyone scattered. Left standing in front of the doorway was a giant of a man. He had to have stood at least seven feet tall. His skin was dark and his muscles bulged. His hair was buzzed short and noticeably graying, which only added to the masculinity radiating from him. He wore the same uniform as the other guards, but his presence commanded attention. This man was in charge.

“I had no doubt that you would return with the girl, Rowan, but what I didn’t expect was to see him with her.” He narrowed his eyes at Kel’s smile, and I paled. Was he in some sort of trouble?

“I did not expect it either,” Rowan replied, and the man nodded, turning his full attention to me.

“Hello, Vivienne. My name is Silas, and I am the captain of the guard,” he said, reaching out his enormous hand. I gulped as I reached to shake it. It engulfed mine, and he smiled kindly at me. I felt immediately more relaxed.

“Pleased to meet you,” I responded.

“I wish we had more time to get acquainted, but I have been instructed to escort you directly to the palace upon your arrival,” he said as he walked across the room to lean against the wall. I had the impression that he was trying not to frighten me, and I knew that must mean he could be very, very scary.

“I will take her,” Rowan offered, and Silas eyed him before he nodded, dismissing us. I waved good-bye to Silas and latched onto Kel’s arm again for support. There was a palace, and I was going to it. This couldn’t be real life—not my life, at least.

We left the way we came in, and as we cleared the initial guard buildings, I noticed the streets started branching out into roads leading in every direction. I couldn’t see far enough to tell where they all led, but I spotted farmland in the distance on each side. Straight ahead of me was a city that was more than ten times the size of Velia. Houses lined the streets here and there, but I could see where they ended and slightly bigger buildings began. The main road through the city was paved with cobblestone, and the streets were lined with lamps that were just beginning to come to life in the fading light of the evening.

“The city’s lower housing district,” Rowan said when we began passing the rows of houses. They had a sort of uniform look to them, unlike the houses in Velia that were vastly different from their neighbors. These houses were pristine, squared off, and fenced into lots. There were no animals to be seen milling about in their perfectly manicured yards. No goats nibbling on their plants or horses tied to their fence posts. It smelled a lot better than Velia too, that was for sure. I tried to count the houses as we passed, but the rows made it difficult, and I soon decided that there were more people living in this “lower housing district” than all of Velia.