The Missing Mage (7 page)

Ava closed her eyes and visualized the rock sliding all the way across the table, when she opened her eyes she saw the rock fall over the edge of the table and into Nathan’s lap. She laughed with excitement. “Oops, too far.”

Nathan just joined her in laugher. “No worries, you are doing great.” He put the rock back on the table and it slowly started to make its way back to her.

 She looked into his shimmering blue eyes. “How do you do it without closing your eyes; how come he makes me close mine?”

Nathan spoke as the rock continued to move towards her. “I learned the same way, I think that doing it the first couple times with your eyes closed teaches you that focusing on the rock isn’t what makes it move. You could stare at a rock all day and it would never move, but if you think about magically moving the rock it will go. Once you get used to having a magical connection to the rock, moving it without closing your eyes will be easy.”

Ava thought for a minute before trying again. She did close her eyes but this time focused more on the thought of magically pushing the rock instead of just the rock moving. When she opened her eyes, the rock was an inch from the edge of the table in front of Nathan, exactly where she had wanted it to go.

She looked up and gave Nathan a big smile. Nathan returned her smile and kept staring into her eyes, the rock slid across the table and stopped in front of her. His eyes had never left hers. She laughed. “Now you’re just showing off.”

Nathan shrugged. “Maybe a little.”

Ava kept her eyes open and looked at the rock, asking it to move across the table. This time she was able to watch it slide across the table.

By the time Balthazar came back they had the rock zigzagging across the table quickly, the rock would barely stop moving one way before the other person started it going the other way.

Balthazar watched for a few moments before putting his hand beside the table, the rock suddenly changed directions and quickly slid into Balthazar’s hand. “Excellent work you two, now this rock is also magical but it is much harder to move. This time instead of working as individuals you are going to have to work as a team. The two of you are going to make the rock go into the basket.” Balthazar placed a stool on top of the table then a basket floated across the room, landing on top of stool. A rock the size of a large fist rolled onto the table.

Ava looked at Nathan, who nodded in return. She turned her focus to the rock, giving it a push towards Nathan. The rock started to move towards him but then started back in her direction, she mentally pushed back harder. The rock lift off the table briefly but then shot across the table. Nathan quickly jumped out of the projectile’s way.

Ava gave Nathan a shrug. ”Sorry about that.”

Balthazar spoke up. “Remember this is magic but the principles are not much different than normal. If one of you pushes harder than the other, the rock will go the way of least resistance. If you push with an equal force the rock will stay in one place or move in another direction. If you’re both thinking about moving the rock forward and up then the rock has a chance to go the right direction.”

As Balthazar spoke the rock floated back into the middle of the table, dropping with a thud.

Ava looked over at Nathan. “Ready?”

“Ready,” replied Nathan.

This time Ava waited for the rock to move towards her. Once she had a feel for the amount of magical force Nathan was applying, she spoke. “Okay, now up.” She then thought about the rock being pushed and lifted at the same time. The rock started to lift, slowly making its way up to the basket. Occasionally, the rock would begin to move sideways or wobble, as the two young mages learned to apply an even amount of magical force. (It was trickier than it sounds.) Everything was going smoothly until they had the rock above the stool’s height. As Ava gave the rock a sideways push to land in the basket, Nathan was doing the same. The rock spit out to the side before falling back onto the table.

“Darn it,” exclaimed Ava. “We had it, just too much side push.”

Nathan agreed with her assessment. “Let’s try again.”

This time they landed the rock into the basket with only the slightest amount of wobble when moving it sideways.

Balthazar clapped. “Very good, now one last exercise for today.” He put an object on the table. “This time your efforts are going to be against each other. Both of you will be pushing at the same time, and there is a prize involved.”

Ava looked at the fragile egg on the table. She could predict how this game was going to be played. “Let me guess, first person to push the egg into the other wins?”

“Yes, but if the egg breaks on the table you both lose. Just pushing the egg doesn’t win you a prize. You have to protect the egg from your opponent’s force while moving it forward. It’s not very often a student gets the prize.”

Ava thought it through, how the heck could she keep the egg from cracking yet still push it hard enough to reach Nathan?

Nathan seemed to be having the same thoughts and hadn’t started pushing the egg yet. Balthazar hadn’t said they couldn’t start, so Ava decided a quick attack might get it done. She gave the egg a firm push towards Nathan.

The egg was almost three quarters of the way across the table before Nathan reacted, blocking the egg from going any farther.

“Woah, that was sneaky Ava. Nice try but I got this.” Nathan had stopped the egg and was slowly moving it back up the table towards her. Ava knew Nathan well enough to know he would let the egg break before letting her push harder than him, but perhaps there was another way.

Ava imagined that, instead of a magical hand pushing the egg, she had a magical string tied to the egg and to the table. As she stopped pushing against Nathan, his magic shot the egg towards her. Just before it crashed into her, Ava’s magic string grew taut and, using the momentum from Nathan’s magical push, the egg to swung around the table sideways in arch. When her magical string had spun the egg almost a full 180 degrees, Ava release her connection. The egg shot straight into Nathan’s chest, showering yolk and shell pieces all down his chest.

“Aww yuck,” exclaimed Nathan as he looked down at his now rather messy tunic.

Balthazar, who had been watching with amusement, congratulated Ava on her victory. “Well done, young lady. An excellent example of how magic can be used. Nathan applied the greater magical force but sometimes force on its own does not ensure victory. With magic, a little bit of creativity can change the outcome. As promised, here is your prize.” Balthazar handled Ava a small, intricately carved wooden box. The rose carved on the box’s  continually bloomed, changing from a small bud to a fully bloomed flower, then back again. “Don’t open the box yet. Wait until you are listening to something beautiful, then open it. Close it again and whatever sounds you heard with it open will be repeated. I like to listen to the ocean; other students have chosen music. One strange boy listened to his father’s snoring.”

Ava laughed. Magic was going to be so much fun.

Chapter ten

BEHIND THE STREET CART lay the alley where Everet, the former duke, was to meet the would-be extortionists. Dark and secluded, the alley was a perfect trap for an amateur. To Everet it was a narrow killing field where numbers would be a disadvantage. His adversaries had chosen a poor location for this meeting.

During his meeting with Bryant Bingham, he had learned that the man, a cousin to the king, had been caught in a honey trap. One of his unscrupulous relatives had thrown a party and used the occasion as a setup, getting Lord Bingham so intoxicated he blacked out. The next morning, the lord woke up beside a naked woman who claimed assault. The host, a distant relative to Lord Bingham, told him to leave quickly that he would take care of the situation. Bryant, hung over and confused, didn’t recall the woman being at the party, let alone remember bedding her, took his distant relative’s advice and fled.

Later, the same relative, Connard Bingham, a shifty and conniving young man, announced to Bryant that he had gained the girl’s silence in the matter but it would require five thousand gold coins, an exorbitant amount. Bryant confessed his innocence to Connard, hoping his a second cousin, would help. Instead, Connard only laughed, explaining his innocence mattered not, his reputation would suffer either way if he didn’t pay the gold. Bryant put two and two together and realized that his cousin had set the whole thing up.

Upon hearing the story, Everet had recognized the con. The details might be different in other variations, but the basic framework was always the same. Put a man with money and reputation in a compromising situation involving a young woman, then squeeze him for as much money as possible. That the con artist and victim were both members of the royal family was an interesting twist and made the stakes even higher, but the game was always played the same.

Everet explained to Bryant that the amount of gold he gave Connard didn’t matter, the man would be back for more. Bryant was eager—and willing to pay whatever it took—to make the situation go away. This was perfect for Everet, he would charge Bryant a fraction of the gold that Connard was trying to extort from him, and Bryant would be in his debt.

 First thing was to gain as many details as possible about the setup. Everet had Bryant tell him as many details as possible about the night in question: the mysterious girl claiming to be a victim, the other guests at the party. Everet drilled Bryant for hours, bringing every memory to the front of his brain. By the time Everet was done questioning Bryant, he had a solid amount of information to start using to track the girl down.

Everet instructed Bryant to get in contact with Connard, to explain that he intended to pay the girl’s demands but was having a hard time getting the amount of coin together and that it would take a few days longer. Crooks had one thing in common: greed always prevails over common sense. Connard might question the delay, but the promise of the large amount of gold was too difficult to resist.

It had taken three days of discreet inquires and bribes for Everet to track down the girl at the seedy tavern where she was a waitress, The girl was not quite a prostitute, but she was willing to do almost anything for the right coin. When she returned to her room, Shelley, the young girl, was more than a little tired after a long shift of dealing with drunks and her sleazy boss. She had just finished taking her dress off when she finally noticed she was not alone. A man had taken her chair and moved it into the farthest corner of the room from the window, to the darkest most shadow-filled spot.

She froze at the sound of his voice. “Shelley, Shelley, Shelley, you have been a naughty girl. What am I to do with you?” She turned towards the man, not bothering to cover her exposed body, she hoped the allure of her nudity would help her out of the situation. She was mistaken.

Shelley could not see the man’s face in the shadows, all she could see was the gleam of steel in his hands. The blade was the only thing far enough into the light to get a good look at. Shelley focused on it as he slowly and methodically spun the blade in his fingers like a top.

“Shelley, today is your lucky day, it might not seem like it at the moment but trust me it is. Normally in a situation like this, the simplest solution to my problem would be to kill you. But I am in a creative mood and think we might be able to come to a solution that doesn’t require such a drastic end. However, if I believe you are not cooperating or being less than truthful with me, I’m afraid the simple method will be used. Do you understand what I am saying?“

Shelley was used to dangerous and bad men, but the icy cold voice of the man with the dagger scared her like nothing before. She nodded, too scared to speak out of turn, she knew one wrong word tonight would end her life.

Everet could see the fear in her eyes, but he also noticed how she shifted just slightly, turning so that more of her exquisite young body was exposed to the soft moonlight. She was terrified yet crafty, which Everet found surprisingly interesting. He had never found woman particularly interesting before. Perhaps she might live through this after all. “Tell me everything about Connard Bingham….”

Everet flipped up the hood of his cloak, and entered the narrow alley behind the street cart. Slowly and stealthily, he moved through the maze of garbage until he turned the corner to the designated meeting place, a dead end alley surrounded by brick walls. The three men waiting, expecting to sheer a sheep, were about to tangle with a wolf instead.

When Everet came around the corner, Connard and his two hired thugs were waiting. Connard could tell from the bulk of the figure that this was not his expected victim, Bryant, despite the grey cloak that hid Everet’s features.

Caught off guard, Connard attempted to rid himself of this untimely intrusion with a menacing threat. “Be gone before you lose your life. This alley is occupied.” Connard hoped to get this stranger out of the alley before his cousin arrived. A witness would be terribly inconvenient.

Everet laughed. “Someone is going to lose their life today, but it is not going to be me, Connard Bingham.”

The laugh sent a shiver of fear down Connard’s spine, this stranger knew who he was, his appearance was no accident. Connard wasted no time in signaling his hired thugs to attack. Whoever the cloaked man was, he was about to pay for interfering with this setup.

The two thugs moved quickly to attack, Everet took a couple steps back, easing into the first alley. To the two thugs, it looked like he was trying to retreat. They smiled, confident that they would easily dispose of this untimely intrusion. But Everet was not retreating to safety, he was stepping back into the narrower confines of the first alley, forcing the thugs to move single file to attack him.

As the larger man in the lead raised his club, Everet moved explosively to his left, pushing himself hard against the brick alley wall. The thug’s club whistled past Everet and hit the hard ground with a thud. Using the wall as leverage, Everet pushed and collided with his attacker, pushing him back into the second thug. Everet’s dagger had found its mark, penetrating the larger man’s rib cage and sliding into his heart. Weakened by this mortal blow, the thug was unable to regain his balance and fell, knocking the second thug to the ground and pinning him down with his dying body. As the thug tried to push his companion off of himself, Everet threw his dagger with a flick of his. The narrow blade sliced into the would be killer’s throat.