God of Magic 7 Read online

  “Did you find some arrows?” I asked to distract him.

  “Arrows, some decent knives, and some odd weapon that’s supposed to come back to you when you throw it,” Dehn replied.

  “Everybody else is below,” I said. “I’ll be down in a few minutes. I just have to take care of something.”

  “Are you gonna blow up the boats?” Dehn asked with a trace of excitement as he looked at the ships lined up in the port.

  “Nothing like that,” I assured him.

  “Well, call me if it gets exciting,” he replied. He thumped across the deck and disappeared down the hatchway. Even with the captain calling out orders and the sound of the sails unfurling, I could still hear Dehn hit the deck below with a loud thud.

  The ship proved to be surprisingly smooth as we pulled away from the docks. Jerrold had practically bragged about the fact that he didn’t use mages on his ship, and I had to give him credit. The old tub could move well enough when it had to, even without a magical assist.

  “The sea is in my blood,” Jerrold declared as he stopped for a moment to watch the sails fill. “I can read these waters better than any mage.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” I replied. “I’m surprised at how smooth this is.”

  We passed a few fishing boats as we turned towards the breakwater and the open sea beyond, but no other trading vessels set sail with us. As we neared the harbor wall, I opened up my mana and traced the chain. It was a massive thing, and I wondered what type of forge could have produced the huge links that went into making this barrier.

  A signal light flashed from the top of the wall, and a sailor in the crow’s nest signalled back. I realized it was probably a system to let the ships know when it was safe to cross the harbor entrance. I waited until our ship was clear, and then I tugged on the winch.

  It was slow going, and the wall was nearly out of sight by the time I finished, but I managed to pull the chain up far enough to keep any ship from passing in or out of the harbor. I’d even managed to lock the chain in place. It wasn’t a complicated spell, but it would flummox the average mage, and at least slow down the manipulators who followed us.

  The work with the chain had worn me out more than I realized, and I stumbled as I tried to turn towards the hatch. Captain Jerrold, who patrolled the deck, grabbed my arm and steadied me.

  “May take you a day or two to get your sea legs,” he warned. “Until then, you should probably stay away from the rails.”

  “Right,” I agreed as the boat suddenly rocked.

  I crab walked back to the hatch and half climbed, half tumbled down the steps. I opened the door to the starboard cabin, but it was empty. I heard Maruk’s laugh and Aerin’s snort from the portside cabin, and I opened that door instead. The rest of the Shadow Foxes were crammed inside. Someone had put together a meal of sorts, and mugs of hot tea had been poured.

  “Did you blow up any boats?” Dehn exclaimed when he saw me.

  “No, sorry,” I replied as I crammed myself into a small space near the door. “I raised the chain though. It should take them a few days to figure out how to lower it again.”

  “Good,” Lena said as she handed me some tea and a bowl of stew. I took a bite and then another. Not only was I tired, but hungry as well. I gobbled down the thick soup without really tasting it, and then a second bowl.

  “That was actually very good,” I mumbled as I swiped up the last of my stew.

  “Maruk put it together after he saw what the cook made for the crew,” Yvaine said.

  “That bad?” I asked as I leaned back.

  “Dried cod is always bad,” Maruk sighed.

  “Imogen was just telling us that she knows someone who can be our guide,” Aerin remarked.

  “Do we need a guide?” I asked.

  “He’s been to the edge of the Great Chasm,” Imogen explained. “There aren’t many who have.”

  “The Great Chasm?” I said.

  “It was created right after Augustine was destroyed,” Emeline replied. “They say nothing survives on the other side.”

  “Sounds like our kind of place,” I noted. “So who is this guide?”

  “An elf named Catarosoufallaniekist Debrovolkanar,” Imogen stated with a straight face.

  “Catso what?” I fumbled.

  “Everybody just calls him Cat,” she added.

  “Geez, where’d his parents come up with that name?” Dehn grumbled.

  “It’s a very traditional elven name,” Aerin sniffed. “It signifies his ancestors going back for several generations. Only the oldest elven families still use the technique.”

  “He comes from one of the eastern cities in Caaldir,” Lena added as she contemplated the name. “I’d say one of the oldest. And one that probably doesn’t have much to do with any other races.”

  “You’d be right,” Imogen replied. “Though he hasn’t ventured home in quite some time. He prefers to travel and meet new people.”

  “You trust him?” I asked.

  “Implicitly,” the ladona replied.

  “Emeline, you’ll be working with him the most,” I said with a nod to the panthera. “How do you feel about having a guide?”

  “A guide’s better than a map any day,” she admitted. “He’ll know about a lot of the dangers that don’t get marked on a map, and he may even know a few shortcuts.”

  “So where do we find Cat?” I asked.

  “I’ll send word once we reach Maraz,” Imogen replied. “Hopefully, he’ll be nearby and can help us out.”

  “In the meantime, I guess we just sit back and enjoy the trip,” I said.

  The trip, however, wasn’t that enjoyable. The Passionate Lady followed the coastline, but we were still battered by powerful winds from the sea and snow that was blown out from the shore. Jerrold seemed to patrol the deck endlessly, his eyes locked on the horizon. The sailors of the Passionate Lady opted to ignore our group, though a few talked to me as the sole human male among the team.

  Dehn’s suspicion that the crew thought I was smuggling a harem was confirmed by two of the sailors one night who asked which Persan lord wanted such an odd assortment of women. I tried to convince them that there was no such Persan lord, then finally gave up on that strategy. I leaned in and told them quite confidentially that I couldn’t name any names because it might cost me my life. The sailors seemed to believe that, and there were no more questions about which household the women were bound for.

  Lena and Aerin were kept busy the first few days fending off our seasickness. Lena had managed to adjust her formula, so we weren’t all turning purple and orange, but I did notice a distinct rusty look to my hair. Jerrold actually came to our salvation one night and offered a concoction that his wife had developed. It tasted like weeds and mud, but my stomach was a lot calmer after that. In return, Imogen and Lavinia shared some tea with him, which led to the first friendly smile I’d ever seen on Jerrold’s face.

  Halfway through the voyage, two things happened. First, the sailor in the crow’s nest called out that there was a ship behind us, making its way along the same route to Maraz. Jerrold looked surprised but not worried. The Shadow Foxes, however, quietly began to prepare our weapons.

  The second event was perfectly normal, at least to start. There was a section of coast line where the rocks and corals jutted out further into the water. Ships could either try to navigate slowly through the hazards or move further away from shore into the deeper waters. I thought simply moving into deeper water was an obvious choice, but I saw the sailors eye the sea warily, and I knew that there was more to this than just greater depths.

  “What are they afraid of?” I asked the captain as the Passionate Lady slowly angled away from the coast.

  “What do you mean?” Jerrold protested as he watched the crew scramble around the deck.

  “They don’t think that deeper waters are necessarily safer waters,” I said. “And I’d like to know why.”

  “Stories,” Jerrold sniffed. “Noth
ing more.”

  “I’ve learned not to discount stories,” I replied. “So tell me yours.”

  “I’m sure they’re the same in every port,” Jerrold sighed. “Creatures that live in the deeps, great monsters that can smash a ship in two. Out here, it’s a kraken.”

  “A kraken?” I prodded as an image of a giant octopus popped into my head.

  “Every time a ship is lost, they blame it on the kraken,” Jerrold replied. “Even if the captain was drunk and ran the ship aground. It doesn’t matter. They always blame it on the kraken.”

  “But you don’t believe in the kraken,” I said.

  “I’ve sailed these waters for most of my life,” the captain insisted, “and I’ve never seen anything like a kraken. I won’t deny, I’ve seen my share of strange beasts before, but I’ve never seen a squid so large that it could destroy a ship.”

  “That’s a relief,” I replied. Yet the crew was still nervous, and I knew that more than one mythical beast was alive and well on Evreas, and all were more than willing to kill and eat humans.

  The weather that night was miserable, and the Shadow Foxes stayed in our cabins. Even Maruk looked uncomfortable with the ship’s rocking. Aerin and Lena did their best, and we drank a lot of Jerrold’s muddy water, but the rest of us were green around the gills, to put it mildly. Our moans became synchronized with those of the ship and part of me believed that death by kraken wouldn’t be so terrible.

  I ventured back to the deck after the storm finally broke. Clouds still scudded across the sky but shafts of sunlight managed to break through. The waves were still higher than I remembered, but the boat seemed to have survived without any real damage.

  I found Captain Jerrold squinting into the distance. Beside him was a short black man with a shaved head that I had decided was Jerrold’s second, though we had never been introduced. The two men had a rapid discussion in Pars before the captain turned towards me with a grim look.

  “What’s happened?” I asked.

  “We’re just a bit further out than we would like to be,” the captain replied. “It may take us an extra day to reach Maraz.”

  “That storm really pushed us around last night,” I commented.

  “Aye,” the captain agreed as he studied the clouds. “And the wind isn’t in our favor either. Though, perhaps….”

  “Perhaps what?” I prodded, since that was clearly what the captain wanted.

  “I understand you are a mage,” the captain replied. “If you could create a wind to carry us towards Maraz…”

  The captain shrugged and looked at me expectantly.

  “I’ve never tried anything like that before,” I hesitated. “Besides, I thought you didn’t need a mage.”

  “We’ll get there, don’t worry,” Jerrold replied as he scowled at the sails of the ship. “It’s simply that the storm has thrown us further out than we would normally go. If you want to arrive on time, and I believe you do, then you may want to try your hand at giving us a small… nudge.”

  I tried to remember if I had read anything about guiding a boat. The orcs used wind mages all the time, as did many of the merchant ships that made the trip around the Ibarian Sea. Even Emeline’s brother Etienne was currently providing power for Maruk’s pirate cousins.

  “Well, if you decide to try, Maraz is that way,” the captain said as he pointed off to the right.

  I nodded as the captain, and his second walked away. I opened my mana and studied the clouds that skimmed by and the winds that pushed them. When I was feeling a little more confident, I sent a small burst of air towards the main sail. The sail fluttered, caught between two conflicting bursts of air. The sailors on deck scrambled while the man at the tiller called out orders. The sail threatened to collapse, but the sailors were able to keep it in line with the breeze, and it soon billowed out again. I felt a hard gaze on me, and I looked around to spot Captain Jerrold giving me a speculative look. I shrugged innocently and quickly returned below.

  I knocked on the door to the women’s cabin, and after a moment, Lavinia opened the door.

  “What?” Lavinia demanded. I could see she was still a little green and decided that was probably why she was so surly.

  “I need to talk to Emeline,” I explained.

  “Unnga” Emeline answered. Her voice was muffled, and I realized she was still buried under a pile of blankets.

  “She’s still a little woozy,” Lena said sympathetically.

  “I was hoping you could help me figure out what Etienne does when he guides a ship,” I said to the mound of blankets.

  “Will it get us off this ship faster?” Lavinia asked.

  “Yes,” I replied.

  Lavinia stepped away from the door and stalked over to the twitching mound. She shook Emeline which elicited another moan.

  “You can be back on solid land that much faster if you help Gabriel,” Lavinia insisted as she shook the panthera again.

  “Here,” Aerin added as she placed her hands on the panthera. “I’m all for getting off this boat sooner.”

  Aerin’s healing glow filled Emeline, and a moment later, the panthera woman sat up slowly. Aerin held her while the hammock swayed, and then the elf and the ladona helped her to the deck.

  “We could go up top,” I suggested. “The fresh air might help.”

  “Here,” Yvaine said as she tossed a cloak around Emeline’s shoulders.

  “And remember,” Imogen added, “just ignore the sailors.”

  “Uh-huh,” Emeline replied as she took a stumbling step. I grabbed an elbow and held her steady for a moment. When she had her balance, I guided her out of the cabin to the ladder. She frowned at the steps, but she managed to pull herself up to the deck. She slipped out of view, and then I heard a loud thump.

  I scrambled up the ladder and found Emeline in a heap in the middle of the deck, and then I scrambled over to her all while berating myself for bringing her out here. I started to apologize, but I saw that she was drawing several large breaths of air and I could hear just the faintest purr.

  “This smells so much better,” she mumbled when I sat down next to her.

  “Salt air is supposed to be good for you,” I replied. I had no idea if that was true, but the characters in all those old Victorian novels were forever heading off to the shore for salt air to cure whatever ailment they had.

  Jerrold approached and I could see his scowl as he took in the panthera woman on his deck. He started to say something, but I held up a hand and then pointed towards the sail. He shrugged and walked away.

  “What do you know about air mages?” I asked.

  Emeline opened her eyes and glanced around the deck. Her gaze drifted towards the sails that billowed in the wind, and she smiled.

  “Etienne used to take us out on a small sailboat when we were kids,” she sighed.

  “Did Etienne use his air mage skills to guide the boat?” I prodded.

  “Always,” she replied. “I don’t think he really knew any other way to sail.”

  “Can you explain to me what he did?” I whispered as one of the sailors walked by.

  “I think so,” Emeline said. “It’s not as simple as just filling the sail with air.”

  “I sort of discovered that,” I admitted.

  “If you’re not careful, you can cause the sails to go slack,” she continued. “You have to work with the wind that’s there, not try to push against it so much.”

  “Can you show me what he would do using your fire skills?” I asked.

  “I think so,” she said thoughtfully. “Here, watch this.”

  She created a small fireball and held it just above her hand. It hovered for a moment, and then slowly it started to float with the wind. When it was about a foot away, she brought it back to her hand.

  “Etienne would do something similar with the sails,” she remarked as the fireball hovered over her hand again.

  “Do it again,” I urged as I opened my mana to watch. I tried the same spell
with my own fireball, and I felt it respond. Curiously, I also felt the bracelet Imogen had given me respond as well. As an experiment, I sent my mana into the bracelet first. I could feel the spell I had cast grow in power, and my fireball was noticeably larger and brighter.

  We stayed like that for several hours, moving the fireball back and forth. When I was feeling more confident, I tried nudging the main sail again, using the bracelet to enhance my mana. This time the sail shifted effortlessly, and I saw the captain perk up.

  “Maybe I can do this,” I murmured as I nudged the sail again.

  I felt the ship move this time as well, and the sailor on the tiller had a grin on his face. The captain gave me a quick nod and barked out a few orders.

  As sundown approached, we were making good time back towards the coastline. I had a real feel for the interaction between the sails and the air and a new respect for sailors.

  Emeline stayed with me, offering tips and suggestions to keep us from drifting too far from our course. The crew had finally decided that ignoring the pathera was the better solution, especially if it meant making good time to Maraz.

  And then the man in the crow’s nest started yelling. Whatever he said was in Pars, but clearly it was bad news. The crew froze for a moment and I saw looks of panic on their faces. Only Jerrold appeared to be unfazed, and he slapped one man across the face when he didn’t immediately obey an order. That seemed to work, because the crew was suddenly sprinting across the deck, pulling on ropes, and just generally looking busy. Two men emerged from below carrying several weapons, and they were passed among the crew.

  “Now might be a good time for the rest of the Shadow Foxes to join us,” I murmured to Emeline.

  “Got it.” The panthera nodded and slipped down the hatch.

  While I waited for the rest of the Foxes, I turned my attention back to the sails. I gave the ship another nudge and tried to increase its speed through the water. But the ship’s boxy shape could only move so fast, and I thought wistfully of the beautiful ships that had been lined up at the docks.