“No, Cassis, stop!”
Rikar ran towards her.
She released an enormous fireball at the enemy, incinerating him into a cloud of ash. But she couldn’t contain the power. It burned stronger inside. The light rose to a frenzied brilliance as many apprentices around started running away from her.
Her neck dropped. Her flaming, brilliant body exploded in a powerful wave, burning chunks of fire and flesh searing everywhere.
Those fleeing were cut down by the blast. Some were knocked against the stone walls. Some catapulted over the edge and plummeted to the ground far below. The ones refusing to leave her side were incinerated where they stood. Talis felt his stomach twist and flip around, and he vomited, coughing, choking on his own bile.
Gasping for air, for life, he tried to expel the image from his mind. A primal fear burrowed its way inside. What had just happened? Was this the terror of magic? He still felt the fire burning inside. Why would he risk his life and the lives of his friends? The power roared so strong. Could he ever learn to contain it?
Rikar balled up his fists and pounded the ground, sobbing. Nikulo came close and tried to comfort him, but Rikar just pulled away and curled up. A lightning bolt shattered a nearby tower, jolting Rikar to attention. He raised his head and stared blankly in the direction of the blast.
“She’s gone,” he whispered.
“We’ll be dead too if we don’t get out of here.” Mara pulled Talis back.
“Why of all times did you choose now to practice magic?” Rikar glowered at Talis, crawling towards him with murder in his eyes.
“It just happened-”
“Just happened? You just cast a wild spell and hit the sorcerer and your allies? Your inept, ill-targeted spell caused Cassis to lose her concentration, killing her and her friends? How does that just happen?”
“I didn’t mean to hurt her…I was trying to help.”
Mara turned Talis away from Rikar. “That spell you cast was amazing! I can’t believe you actually cast Fire Magic. Just ignore Rikar, it wasn’t your fault. Cassis went too far and lost control. Let’s get out of here.” She pointed at hundreds of black shapes charging across the sky. “Every moment more come-we’re outnumbered. Let’s go.”
“Cowards,” Rikar said, “I’d rather fight and die then run away like a dog.” He motioned to Nikulo and they jogged off towards the tower where a group of wizards were fighting a larger group of invaders.
“We can’t compete against that kind of power.” Mara sighed. “Let’s at least try to find Master Viridian or one of the other masters.”
But as they turned, a sorcerer with flame-red hair flew towards them, his long black robe fluttering behind.
“Let’s go!” Talis dashed after Mara and they raced towards the stairwell.
“Little mice, don’t run away,” the sorcerer said. “The Master has sent me to collect you.” He pointed a ruby-tipped staff at Talis and issued a flood of black tangle-vines.
8. THE SURINEDA MAP
Talis leapt out of the way and tumbled down the dusty stairs. He regained his footing, and Talis and Mara wound their way around to the bottom. He could hear the sorcerer’s laughter chasing after them.
“Oh good, a game of hide and seek…I always love a good game,” the sorcerer said, his shrill and booming voice echoing down the stairwell.
Instead of going through the door leading out to the streets, Mara jumped back, shrieking, trapped as a female sorcerer entered from the bottom. Talis shoved the woman’s back and she went sprawling onto a vase filled with peacock feathers.
“Down here.” Mara shot into a dimly lit corridor that led to the temple crypts. Why weren’t the sorcerers attacking them? And who was this master that was trying to capture them?
Up ahead Talis could see eerie shadows dancing from the magical blue lights mounted on the walls. The crypts. The place of burial for thousands of departed wizards of the Order of the Dawn. Mara stopped at the bottom, and a luminescent face, the Door-Guardian, hovered in the air in front of a black iron and wooden door.
“Who goes there?”
“Mara Lei, of House Lei.” Mara pointed at Talis. “And Talis Storm, of House Storm. We seek refuge and safety inside the crypts.”
“Refuge?”
“As in now!” Mara shouted. “We’re being chased.”
The guardian looked perplexed, as if trying to solve a puzzle. “How strange…trouble here inside the temple?”
Footsteps rapped on the stone steps behind them, and voices chuckled fitfully. “Where have the little mice scurried off to? A game of hide-and-seek in the dungeons? Come back, little ones, our Master only wants to talk to you.”
“I said let us in,” boomed Mara. “Our lives are in danger.”
As Mara pushed at the door, the portal bowed and blew golden dust towards the door, illuminating the black iron on the surface, revealing a complicated geometric pattern of overlapping triangles and circles. The shapes moved and finally came together, then the door went click and opened.
They rushed inside and pounded down a stone ramp that led into a vast gloomy room, faintly lit by floating candles that spilled out orange light. Shadows flickered across grotesque faces, hundreds of stone figures, standing as guardians over the countless crypts of the fallen masters of the Order. Throughout the crypts, Talis could see countless silvery spider webs tangling the air. The smell of mold and dust and embalming fluid pressed heavily like a choking hand.
Instead of the door slamming shut behind them, the voices following them got louder. “Of course we’re allowed to enter,” a sorcerer yelled. “No, no, we’re not chasing them. Yes, we’re friends. Be a good guardian and let us pass, now will you?”
Talis and Mara ducked behind a crypt statue and stared back at the door. They were going to take them away from Naru, Talis had heard stories like this. Dark sorcerers stealing children and raising them to study their nefarious arts.
“Only royals and members of the Order may enter,” the guardian said. “You’re uninvited guests.”
The door attempted to swing shut, but one of the sorcerers summoned a meaty hand the size of a man, blocking the door from closing. The giant fingers flexed, snapping the door hinges.
“No,” the guardian shouted, “you’re not allowed to do that!”
“As if you can do anything about it,” mumbled the red-haired sorcerer. He stepped inside the crypt. “Such flimsy magic here in Naru. One wonders why the Master allowed this pathetic city to remain neutral.”
The other sorcerer, a tall, spindly woman in a silver robe, cast a spell, illuminating the crypts in a garish white light. “Do remain diligent, Calasar, these children must have some power if the Master has sent us after them.”
“Mice? Oh little mice?” Calasar said, “A bit of cheese, a bit of bread, a bit of red from your bloody head…”
“Don’t scare them,” the woman whispered. Then loudly, “We’re not here to hurt you.”
“Are we really only collectors then? While the others are marauding the city, setting fire, sizzling innocent pets with lightning bolts, we’re stuck down in all this gloom looking for a stupid boy?”
A boy? Talis thought. Why were they looking for him? He pointed towards a mausoleum far off in the corner. Mara nodded, following as they stalked away from the sorcerers. The white light disappeared and Talis stopped, waiting for his eyes to adjust. Instead of voices, they heard only the lonely hiss of steam from an air vent. They crept along, staring at carvings of bulls and eagles and lions along the stone walls of the mausoleum.
At the base, he looked up and read the inscription: Master Baribariso, Legendary Wielder of the Kalashi Sword, Undefeated in Battle, Yet Defeated by Old Age…
“I’ve heard of him,” Mara whispered, tracing her fingers over a carving of a lion with long fangs.