The Sartious Mage (The Rhythm of Rivalry) Read online

  The tunnel was made of stone and was blacker than the deepest well. Luckily, using Bastial Energy for light was a minimal effort. I pushed it through my wand to create a yellow glow and hurried down the only path in front of me.

  I realized I’d better have the Princess bound before she awoke, though I had no idea how long that would be. However long it was, I was sure it wasn’t long enough.

  Chapter 5: Goreng and Giant

  I truly hoped there would be some sign she was waking up before she was fully conscious and ready to rebel. I checked on her a few times as I carried her, but she never moved nor made a sound.

  As light as Lisanda was, she was still far heavier than Harwin. By the time I got to the end of the long tunnel, my back was burning. I had her over my shoulder at first, but I couldn’t move quickly that way.

  When she almost slipped off at one point, I transferred her limp body to my front so I could carry her with both arms, one under her knees and the other under her back. I realized how silly it must’ve looked, a dirty farm boy carrying the Princess like a bride while she was clad in a wedding dress, but I was in too serious of a mood to find any humor in it.

  There was a metal wheel on the door that I couldn’t turn with Lisanda strewn across my arms, so I set her down on the stone floor and gave it another attempt. The door popped open with such a creak it seemed as if it had been years since it had moved.

  I peeked out to find a patch of grass that led to a cliff overlooking the city. To my left was the palace wall and tall rocks, which meant there was only one way to go—to the right.

  I took Lisanda in my arms again and stepped onto the grass. I knew she couldn’t have gotten heavier, but it definitely felt that way. I needed a horse if this was going to work.

  I kicked the door shut, but it just bounced back open. I tried again. The same result.

  I gave a discouraging sigh and set Lisanda down on the grass. I shut the door a third time, twisting the identical metal wheel I found on its outside to keep it shut.

  When it was nice and tight, I turned back…and Lisanda was gone—what the Bastial stars?

  My first thought was that she’d been faking, waiting for her chance to escape. I ran after her, only to find she hadn’t moved herself but had been taken by a giant of a man. He was jogging away from me.

  I wasn’t even sure he saw me. He had the Princess wrapped between his arms and chest. Her sleeping head hung over his shoulder, bouncing back and forth with each long stride. The way he carried her was awkward, like how a small boy would try to transport a dog half his size.

  “Hey!” I shouted after him.

  Who are you? Where are you taking her? What are you going to do with her? Did you even see I was here? Those were the questions I wanted to ask, but only that one word came out before he was too far to hear more. He didn’t turn around.

  Half the questions were answered when I saw the canopy he was jogging toward. A little man with arms folded was waiting for him. And by little, I mean very little. He couldn’t have stood taller than my chest.

  “Giant, does she belong to you?” the little man asked with a scolding tone.

  “Erg,” Giant replied in a deep voice that seemed devoid of intelligence.

  “No,” the little man answered for him. “Put her down on the bed. Gently!”

  I caught up as Giant laid her down on a wide mattress sitting directly on the grass. The canopy gave shade to it along with the rest of the small camp, which had a fire pit and a table with two chairs blackened from bad weather.

  “Is one of you Goreng?” I asked, hoping it was the little man, not the one two heads taller than me who seemed difficult to understand.

  “Yes.” Thankfully it was the smaller of the two who answered. “Do you have a pass code, young man?”

  “ ‘The washboard is rigid,’ Micah Vail told me to say.”

  “Yes, yes—I’d like to think so, tumbling into our home so suddenly. And is that Lisanda Takary unconscious in a wedding dress? Never mind.” He shook his hands at me. “I don’t want to know. The less I know, the better.”

  “You have a horse?” I asked, walking over to Lisanda. Giant stood in front of me.

  When I got close, he picked me up by my armpits and swung me around as if I were a child.

  “Put me down!” I yelled.

  “Giant, you know better than that,” Goreng chided him with the same tone as before.

  Giant set me down by the fire pit where a tea kettle hung on a bar over an open flame. He put me a little too close to the surrounding rocks, forcing me to jump the other way from the heat.

  “You have a horse?” I asked again, cautiously walking back toward the mattress with an eye on Giant. “I’m being pursued, so I’m in a hurry.”

  “Yes, yes—I was getting to that.” The first “yes” was a bit slow, like he was still considering what to say next as he uttered it. The second one was quick, stuck to the word after it.

  “Please leave the girl for now,” Goreng continued. “Do us all a favor and get that lever?” He pointed to the long palace wall that had extended down the path with me. There was a rusty lever poking out from a small slit.

  I hurried over and tried to move it, but it wouldn’t budge.

  Goreng spoke to Giant as I struggled. “The young man needs help.”

  Giddy with excitement, Giant ran toward me with a clap of his hands for every step he took.

  “It seems to be stuck,” I tried to explain. But he may have not even heard me. He threw me out of the way with a quick brush of his arm and pulled the lever just as easily as he’d lifted me earlier. I heard the sound of shifting stone with it.

  “Now that same tunnel will lead them north instead of south,” Goreng said with a wide smile. “That’ll give us much more time,”

  “Us? Are you and Giant coming with me?” The idea wasn’t bad, especially given that Giant could carry Lisanda far easier than I could.

  “No, no—my brother and I are staying here. I just meant it’ll give us more time before you have to leave.”

  His brother? I looked back and forth at them. Besides their blond hair, there wasn’t one other similarity. Even their hair only shared a color. Goreng’s was short and flat. Giant’s was wild and wavy, some falling over his face, the rest sticking out.

  “Yes, yes—we’re brothers. I know it’s hard to believe. He got size and strength. I got, well, everything else, including all the responsibility.” A thought seemed to strike him. “Oh, I almost forgot to offer you tea! It’s been a while since we’ve had a visitor. Yes, yes—this will be very exciting. Please, you must sit and have some tea.”

  Don’t drink the tea, Micah Vail had warned me. “I’m in a hurry,” I tried to tell Goreng. I gave Lisanda a glance. She hadn’t moved.

  “They always are. But before I lend you my horse, you must entertain me—just a few questions! Please sit. It’ll only be a moment.” He hopped over to the tea kettle.

  I looked around for the horse but couldn’t find it. The area behind his camp had a well and a cluster of trees. I figured the horse was somewhere behind them, but the chances of running off with Lisanda to steal the horse were slim. He did say it would be only a few questions.

  I sat on the side of the table that let me keep an eye on the Princess.

  While Goreng placed the cups on the table and sprinkled some ground-up plant into them, Giant danced around him like a dog seeing his food delivered.

  “Careful, Giant!” Goreng exclaimed. “This kettle is very hot.”

  Giant stopped moving and resorted to clapping with a deep giggle.

  When Goreng finished pouring, he looked at me with a wry grin. “Giant and I love tea. We drink it every day.”

  I was thirsty, and it smelled wonderful, but I felt it was wise to trust Micah. The way the brothers looked at their steaming cups—if eyes could drool—made me a bit nervous about what kind of tea it was.

  Goreng blew on Giant’s full cup for him, testing it with
his finger every so often. “It’s ready,” Goreng announced. He and Giant held their cups in the air. Goreng motioned for me to do so as well.

  Giant held his cup still and giggled as Goreng’s and my cup clinked into his. I set it down without a taste while the brothers took a long sip. They leaned back to howl, slapping their legs and clenching their teeth in perfect unison. I gave another glance to Lisanda, still sleeping, thankfully. At least it certainly seemed that way. I was ready to jump from my chair if I noticed the slightest movement.

  “Now,” Goreng said, “two questions each, two honest answers, then you can borrow Bam, our lovely horse. You start. Ask me a question.”

  Giant had left the table with his cup of tea, dancing—make that stumbling—around us as he hummed an unrecognizable tune.

  My first question came easy. “Why is Micah Vail helping me?”

  “He’s probably helping more than just you,” Goreng answered without a moment of thought. “If Lisanda is involved, he probably has a plan for her, too. He has a plan for everyone. My turn! Oh, let me think.”

  He took another sip of tea, squeezing his eyes shut while he swallowed. He leaned back to howl, slapping his leg when he was done. His eyes wandered frantically, stopping on Lisanda.

  “What is one thing you like about Lisanda and one thing you don’t?”

  “I don’t even know her.”

  “That makes it more fun,” he said with a mellow voice, winking at me. I had no idea what he was implying, if anything.

  I tried to think of something to say, ignoring that he had given me two questions. “I like her…her hair.”

  “Yes, yes—it’s lovely, so dark and sleek.”

  “And I don’t like her…name.”

  “Her name?” He seemed confused. “Lisanda Takary? Why not?”

  The truth was I didn’t mind her name, just as I didn’t think much of her hair. What I really wanted to know more about was the horse.

  “It’s too long,” I lied.

  He squinted his eyes at me. “You’re making this up. Now, you have to re-answer the question, and there will be three questions instead of two.”

  I sighed and took more time to think as I stared at her body. “I like that she’s short and thin. That has helped greatly so far and will continue to do so in the future.”

  Giant interrupted my thoughts by rushing over and pounding on the table with a deep giggle. Some of my tea jumped from the cup.

  “Careful!” Goreng warned him, but Giant was gone as quick as he’d come, stumbling over to one of the wooden legs of the canopy. He stopped to have what looked like a conversation with it.

  “Continue,” Goreng told me with a smile. His eyes seemed to be aimed at me but looking at something else besides my face, as if he could see through me.

  “I don’t like that Lisanda was about to abandon her own wedding,” I said. “If she was having doubts, she should’ve said something.”

  “Yes, yes—but there’s something you must know about Takary girls.” Goreng climbed on the table, crawling on his hands and knees to get closer to me.

  He whispered, “Often, their weddings are not up to them.” He looked around nervously before crawling backward and finding his chair with his feet, sinking down onto it.

  I realized how true Goreng’s statement was when I remembered the way King Danvell had offered his daughter Jessend to me. Even a pet wouldn’t have been given up so freely.

  “That’s one question each.” Goreng twiddled his fingers on the table. “Your turn.”

  The next question was just as easy to come up with as the first. It was something I’d been wondering the moment I’d started down the secret tunnel. “How long does dream dust last?” I let my eyes rest on Lisanda as I waited for an answer.

  “A few hours. My turn!” Goreng swallowed the last gulp of his tea. He whipped his head around with closed eyes and clenched teeth. Again, he hollered and slapped his knee. “I must compliment myself. This is one of the better brews I’ve made. So my question is, why aren’t you drinking the tea?”

  I felt a nervous dry gulp as I looked into my cup. I decided to check for the horse one more time. No, it wasn’t in sight. “I don’t want any.”

  “Is that a lie?” Goreng tilted his head at me. “You’re holding back something. Tell me what it is or it’ll be four questions before you get to ride Bam.”

  “Micah Vail told me not to drink the tea,” I decided to admit.

  Goreng nodded his head sadly. “I had a feeling. That man’s sense of fun is truly underdeveloped. Here, take these.” Goreng threw a small pouch of crackers toward me. “Careful with those. Only eat them if you’re on the cliff of boredom and about to jump.”

  Pocketing them, but having no idea what he meant, I asked, “What’ll they do?”

  He climbed on the table once again, this time just to drag my cup of tea over to his side.

  “The same thing as the tea,” he said, struggling back into his seat. “They’ll turn that cliff into a river, rushing you through rapids where you’ll find yourself in a land of monkeys and cactuses.” He looked past my shoulder, painting an image with his hands.

  “Then the cactus will yell at you until you help the monkey with his quest. But don’t help the monkey!” He pointed at me with serious alarm. “Not unless he gives you the pass code.”

  He put his hands over his face. “Yes, yes—I do believe I’ve had too much tea.”

  Giant came galloping around the table, mimicking horse sounds as he circled us.

  I’d had enough and decided to test my luck. “Goreng, I need that horse…Goreng? Goreng! Can you hear me?”

  He took his palms off his eyes. “Look!” He pointed at Giant. “Giant has brought Bam out for you.” Giant was still riding around us on an invisible horse.

  “There’s no horse there! Where’s your horse?”

  “That’s not my horse?” He rubbed his eyes. “Bam is a good horse. He always comes back home when he’s no longer needed.”

  I stood, desperate to get out of there. “And where exactly is his home?”

  “Around the corner.” Goreng laughed. “Yes, yes—he’s just right around the corner. No one knows how close he is. But there is a code or he won’t let you on his back.”

  He took a sip of my tea, letting out just a small howl this time.

  I looked toward the palace wall. It became a corner about thirty yards down, turning out of sight. I figured the horse must be on the other side.

  “What’s the code?”

  “You must whisper this into his ear: Your eyes hold the beauty of the sun, and your legs match its power.”

  That couldn’t be right. I knew horses. Some of them learned a few words, but a phrase that long? No way that would be necessary.

  I thanked Goreng, then jogged over to hoist Lisanda over my shoulder, making my way around the corner.

  Bam was a beautiful brown horse, strong and ageless. He was tied to a trough and seemed to regard me with nervous curiosity as I approached.

  “Hello, Bam,” I said with a soft voice. “You’re lovely.”

  He didn’t take to my compliment, sputtering and shimmying away from me when I tried to put Lisanda on the saddle on his back. I decided to try the ridiculous line Goreng had given me.

  “Your eyes hold the beauty of the sun, and your legs match its power.” I stepped closer to try putting Lisanda on him once again, but he whinnied and moved away.

  Then I remembered that Goreng had told me to whisper it. I shook my head in disbelief that I was even going to try it, but I decided it couldn’t hurt. I whispered the line.

  Bam whinnied once again when I was done. With Lisanda still over my shoulder, I positioned myself near the saddle. Complete shock came over me when I balanced the Princess on Bam and he didn’t move.

  I hurried to untie Bam’s rope, adjusted Lisanda upright, and climbed on the saddle behind her. I pulled the reins between her arms and let her rest against my chest so I could look over
her.

  When I realized how absurd it would be for others to see Lisanda Takary in her wedding dress asleep on a horse with a dirty farm boy, I hesitated. What was going to happen when people saw me? Could I even make it out of The Nest? Definitely not before she woke up. The Takary Palace was in the center of The Nest, and the city extended from it ten miles in each direction.

  South was what I wanted, Goreng had explained that to me, and I believed him. But before I left, I took the time to bind Lisanda to me with Sartious Energy by creating a ring of it around our waists. At least then she wouldn’t fall off if I needed Bam to break into a gallop.

  Now, I just needed a plan to make her less conspicuous. That wedding dress needed to come off, but I had nothing to replace it and no money, either.

  I couldn’t stay here any longer. The farther I could get from the palace before she awoke, the better. I started south, figuring I would come up with a plan my usual way, in the moment.

  Chapter 6: Awake

  “Congratulations!” yelled a man, the first person to see us.

  It startled me into giving Bam a kick to speed off.

  Only after we were out of sight did I realize he thought we’d been married. It was something I’d never even considered. How could he think that? He must not have recognized the Princess or seen my clothes very well. He probably only saw Lisanda’s shimmering dress—the stupid thing stood out like a white chicken in a muddy pigsty. I had to find something else for her to wear.

  Heading south, the roads were dusty with dry dirt, the houses were sparse, and there were no solicitors of any kind.

  But that didn’t last long enough. Soon, I was headed into crowds every direction I went.

  “Look, Mother! It’s Lisanda Takary,” a little girl shouted.

  Again, I gave Bam a kick to rush by them. I found my eyes meeting the mother’s in a silent stare. She took her daughter’s shoulders and pointed her the other way, saying something I couldn’t understand and giving me one last cautious look. I figured if the daughter knew Lisanda, the mother probably must as well.