Chapter 16.

  I woke to a sharp pain in my side. I sat up quickly and regretted it immediately as pain exploded in my head. My eyes ached at the attempt to open them, forcing me back down onto the bed with a groan.

  “Stay put,” came the sound of a lilting voice.

  Lissa.

  I turned my head toward her voice, keeping my eyes closed.

  “You’ve been asleep all day,” she said. “And as your healer, it’s my duty to tell you that you shouldn’t have mounted an attack on a prison in your condition. What were you thinking Mage?”

  “Lissa,” I groaned, offering a half-smile, my eyes still squeezed shut. “Do you have any more of that stew?”

  “Yes, I have more stew,” she replied. “But before you get any, you must promise me you won’t go traipsing about the city drawing the eyes of Uof and his thugs again. Okay?”

  “Not today,” I said, my voice hoarse. “I promise.”

  “That’s not what I asked,” Lissa countered.

  Finally, I forced my eyes open, and a wave of déjà vu washed over me. I’d felt almost exactly this terrible in this same room barely twenty-four hours before.

  “You made quite a stir in the city last night,” Lissa said, ladling stew into a small bowl. “The morning barkers are shouting news of you, and the taverns and markets are abuzz with stories of the return of magekind to Vale. Soldiers are trying to suppress the rumors, but too many people saw Mage Beacons lighting up near the Prison Keep. Enough heard the guards talking about an attack, not to mention the explosions echoing along the northern part of the city. Your story, though little of it connected to reality, has taken on a life of its own. Some whisper about an army of mages loose in the city. Are you pleased with yourself?”

  I accepted the bowl of stew and carefully sat up, feeling a bit chastened. My antics were sure to make whatever we did next harder to pull off.

  “Is Bend all right?” I asked, steering the conversation in another direction.

  Lissa’s mouth broke into a smile, her eyes gleaming.

  “He is,” she replied. “After being arrested, imprisoned, and tortured, somehow he seems to have more life in him than I’ve seen in ages.”

  “Then, yes, to answer your question. I’m pleased with myself,” I said. “Are Dirk and the others safe?”

  “So far, yes,” she said, sobering a bit. “The Motorized have intensified their searches. They found one of our boltholes and a large cache of supplies. They’re offering rewards for information leading to rebel captures. No one is helping them yet, but we’ll see how long that lasts. We may need to find new quarters soon.”

  I took a bite of the stew, chewing slowly as its warmth spread through my body.

  “When you’re finished, come join the rest of us,” Lissa said. “Everybody is eager to meet you.”

  I ate my fill, washed my face with the bowl of water near the door, and dressed carefully so as not to wound myself further. My side still hurt, but thankfully, it was a dull ache in the background. Then, I stood and shuffled through one of the doors into the next room.

  I hadn’t spent any time in this room during my previous stay, as I left this area of their tunnels quickly in order to find Bend.

  As I stepped into it now, I could tell it was a gathering place for the resistance. Dirk and Bend sat near the front of the grand hall, in front of a crowd of others, recounting the story of the night before. Lissa stood near the back, and Briar, with his long, knotted hair, sat at the side of the room, watching Bend share the story.

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  No one had noticed me yet.

  I look at this grand hall, a place carved out of a cavern, and turned into a larger meeting room. A roaring hearth fire blazed directly behind Bend and Dirk, and they sat on a slightly raised platform. This space felt like one of the ancient, sacred academies of The Way?—?places of study and training for mages and their apprentices, long since torn down or razed in battles. The great sloped ceiling, supported by thick wooden beams, stretched the length of the hall.

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Bend said, speaking to the group in an animated voice. “We could see and hear the guards panicking all around us—scrambling and afraid—because they knew we were close, as their beacons were lit up like I’ve never seen! But they had no idea we would bypass the gate entirely and go through the damn wall!”

  A round of laughter rippled through the room.

  As I stepped toward the group, still moving cautiously, I found a place to stand in the back of the gathering hall. Bend stood up, seeing me.

  “And there he is now,” he called out. “Our rescuer!”

  The room turned around and erupted in cheers, claps, and whistles. I gave a careful, mock bow.

  “Please, please,” I said with a smile, raising one hand. “I just want to take a seat and listen, if you don’t mind. Please continue, Bend.”

  I took a seat in a chair near the back. My head still felt light, and my side throbbed worse than the day before, but not so badly that I couldn’t bear it. I pulled out one of Lissa’s pain-absorbing herbs and chewed on it as Bend resumed the story.

  “After we made it through the wall, and past the guards, we moved through the forest and into town from the north, completely unnoticed,” Bend said. “However, we now know that Uof keeps a massive store of water underground?—?a hidden lake. We must spread this information. There may be other cisterns or water stores like it near the city, and we need to find them all if we can.”

  He paused and turned to Dirk. “And here we are. I am glad to be back. What news from the city?”

  “Rumors spread like wildfire,” Dirk replied. “Uof is reportedly furious?—?though no one has seen him. Patrols have more than doubled. His forces are tense, fearful, agitated, and ever more violent. We must be careful in all our movements. We are also preparing a small place for us to gather outside the city, just in case we need to abandon this place.”

  He looked around the room, a smile tugging at his lips. “Yet, despite all of that, for the first time in years, I feel a thread of hope winding through the city. People actually seem eager for something to happen. They still will not support us publicly, but if we can fight back, who knows what could happen.”

  “What now?” someone asked.

  Dirk turned to me. “Good question. Yesterday, I woke up grieving my son, uncertain how we would even find more water and supplies. Then you appeared, and everything changed.”

  Everyone turned to me, their eyes filled with expectation.

  Dirk’s gaze was steady and it locked on me. “So, what next, Mage?”

  I cleared my throat, coughed lightly, and spoke. “I suppose I should introduce myself. You can call me Mage.”

  I scanned the tired, battered, and exhausted faces around me.

  “As far as I know, I am one of the last mages of The Way of the Mark left alive,” I said. “I could be wrong about that, but I know there aren’t many of us left. Most of my kind have been killed or captured over the past number of decades. I haven’t met another in years. I teach spells to those who can learn, and I support resistance against The Motorized wherever I find it. I came from the far side of the world. In my travels, I crossed deserts and sailed polluted, brackish oceans. Yes, they still exist. Once, I knew a mage working on a spell to purify that water somehow, but he is long dead.”

  The room was silent as I continued.

  “The world is dying. I spent years searching for Vale and Weer, having heard all the stories about this place. I was and am determined to understand The Motorized and their eradication of The Way. Why do they fear us? What is their aim, their goal? How do they do what they do? Their technology has long been beyond us, and we must change that. I hope you can all help me answer some of these questions.”

  Several people nodded solemnly, while others looked down at the dire report.

  “I came here seeking magekind, others like myself,” I said. “I want to rekindle the flames of The Way before it’s too late. I want to see a world where mages are not persecuted, where those who resist The Motorized can do so freely. I know that today, in this place, after all I’ve seen, that’s a naive thing to say. But I don’t care. I’d nearly lost hope?—?until right now, this morning. Against all odds, I found all of you. And I found Bend. Truly, he’s the first mage I’ve met in years. There may be more among you. We shall find out. If so, I will teach you.”

  I let my words settle before adding, “This war will either end in our deaths or in the birth of a new era. There can be no middle ground.”

  The room was silent, stunned.

  “For now, I will sleep,” I said softly. “Tomorrow, bring all of those willing to learn. We begin then.”

  With that, I stood up, nodded to Dirk and Bend, and shuffled back to my bed.