Chương 7: A pleasant stroll

Ch 7: A pleasant stroll Isavey Amadi, eldest daughter of High Lord Cyrus, walked arm in arm with the strange man, no idea what she was doing. Her life to this point had been largely routine. Etiquette lessons. Magic and religious lessons. A little exercise and music. Then she would sit with her family for the evening meal, and perhaps study a little before bed. The next day it would all repeat again. Of course there were events and special circumstances.

As the greatest Water Pool on the isles in a generation, she would often be sent and shown off for rival families, dangled like the bait she was before prospective husbands. But she had hardly ever been looked at properly by a man she wasn't related to. And she most certainly had never been touched by one.

'Felix', the gifted outsider, smelled like the sea. He was so tall and strong, his quick eyes taking in everything. She knew he would have frightened her, even without a drop of magic affinity. But to channel two opposing elements, and with so much power it could harm the high mage! And so young!

"I'm sorry." The stranger's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"For what?" she asked, leading him to the noble-only road down into the valley.

"I'm not sure, exactly." Felix grinned.

"I just assume I've done and will keep on doing all kinds of things I'm not supposed to. That I've been rude. Disrespectful. I'm sorry about that. I don't mean any offence, you've been very kind." Isavey didn't know how to react. He spoke so strangely, so embarrasingly earnestly. But she found his easy, swaggering manner both charming and…refreshing.

"Of course. People here," she explained, not sure why, "they rarely say what they mean." He shrugged, like he didn't care, like what people thought of him, or the chaos of a new place hardly bothered him at all.

"The fat mage who tried to wipe my brain seemed to say what he liked." Isavey smiled. The high mage was one of her favorite people on the island. More like an uncle than a member of the court." High Mage Hasha is the exception. But then he can afford to be. Most people have guarded tongues."

"It's about the same where I'm from," Felix said.

"At least on land. It's we men of the sea who are a little different." Isavey tried not to stare. She could hardly imagine this man's life. She'd never been anywhere except a single island, and not even all of that. She found she had no idea what to even say to him, though she was filled with questions.

"Please, excuse my curiosity, but have you seen many places? What's..." she felt herself turn a little pink.

"... what's the outside world like?" Felix's blue eyes danced as he laughed, little crinkles a the edges like a man who laughed often. The sound was genuine, infectious. When he looked at her face she wasn't quite able to meet his eyes.

"Well. That's…a big question. It's a big world. What shall I tell you?" He squinted and pursed his lips, then his eyes twinkled as if he'd stumbled on some perfect tale.

"Did you know there's lizard people who walk and talk like men?" Isavey blinked. He was teasing her.

"There are not." Felix laughed again, and she had no idea if he was lying.

"Some of them even leave their jungles and join the coastal nations. They make good sailors. Good balance from that tail," he winked.

"Fierce fighters. And of course they swim like... well, like lizards." Isavey struggled to keep her eyes from widening. Was that the truth? Lizard people?

"You're serious? You've seen one?"

"I drank rum with one! Though… I don't remember much. Maybe it was just that particular lizard man, but I suspect their race can hold their liquor." Isavey covered her mouth and fought the giggle trying to imagine it. People talked about strange and wondrous things outside the isles, but she never knew what was true or just tall tales. Here was a man who'd seen it, though! She walked on lost in thought, then noticed Felix's limp seemed far better.

They were on the smooth, cobblestone road now reserved for the upper classes, with almost no one in sight this time of day.

"Your leg seems better," she said, giving the man a skeptical look. He grinned.

"Does it now? Well, look at that." He made no effort to let go of her arm.

"It must be the lady's soothing presence." Isavey found she didn't much want to let him go, either, and regretted pointing it out. They carried on walking arm in arm, and she was beginning to feel quite awkward at the spoiled fiction. Felix suddenly stopped and stared off the road like a hunting cat.

"What is it?" She turned and saw a man just a little ways up the road. He had a fake smile plastered across his face, and a servant sash over his chest. She didn't recognize him, but that wasn't impossible. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"Excuse me." He held up a scroll.

"But are you Lady Amadi? I've been sent with a message by the High Lord." Isavey frowned. An urgent message? For her? It was unusual, but not entirely unheard of. Her father sometimes summoned her for a task like the one she'd been sent on to Felix. But not delivered by message from a new servant she'd never met. This was very peculiar.

"Something's wrong," said Felix. His body was rigid, his eyes searching the terrain around them.

"There's movement in those trees." He wouldn't have understood the messenger's words, of course. She was about to tell him everything was fine. Some kind of misunderstanding. But little hairs rose on her arms, and she realized a very strange truth: she trusted Felix. She trusted his instincts, his judgment, maybe even his intentions. This made little sense. It was a foolish feeling, since she knew almost nothing about him. But that made it no less true.

As a Water Pool, a holder of the deep and sacred, Isavey was accustomed to trusting her instincts. She stepped behind the foreigner, and away from the messenger.

"I don't have a God cursed weapon," Felix muttered, looking around as if he might find one lying on the path. The messenger saw Isavey's reaction, and his smile faded. Three more men stepped from the trees, their dress strange, their faces hidden behind scarves. Isavey's heart pounded in her chest.

"Here's your message," said the 'servant' ahead, unfurling his scroll to reveal a dagger covered in symbols.

"Your father's time is over. Kill her. Kill them both." The words didn't process. Isavey couldn't understand what was happening. She was in her father's lands, outside the city and on a royal road. The place she'd grown up and been completely safe her entire life. How was this possible? How could this be real? She clutched Felix's back, opening her mouth to protest, to say something. But she found she was too overcome to scream. * Felix had been in worse spots. Just yesterday, in fact.

But he had to believe all these fellows had magic. That was hard enough to believe, and would have been one thing out on the water. Here on land, it was pretty bad. Felix needed power. All he could do was hope maybe these boys might be stupid or ignorant enough to give him some directly, rather than turn their own bodies into killing machines, or toss some trees at his head.

"Come on, then," he gestured the man with the knife forward.

"You little shit. I'm going to put that blade in your gut." He hoped his size and general strength would put the men off. They looked a bit tougher than the other boys with the spears, but few men fancied tangling with Felix hand to hand. At least not if they could avoid it.

"Eck thay," said a man near the trees. Isavey gripped Felix's hips.

"They're just going to kill you with magic. Stay behind me!" Felix easily prevented the petite, apparently slightly crazy woman from 'shielding' him, hoping he put on a valiant, stupid show for the mages.

"Magic?" he sneered.

"No such thing. Go ahead you damn fools, show me your 'magic'. Then I'll cut your throats." The man on the road grinned. Then he held up his dagger, which floated right up into the air. Before Felix could say 'that's not what I meant', the thing launched at him with blinding speed. He couldn't dodge or it would hit the girl. With only a split second to decide, he just shifted and took it in the shoulder. The blade sunk in but fortunately wasn't large. It still hurt like a son of a bitch.

"No!" Isavey screamed in terror. Felix held her back. The men near the trees were gesturing and waving their hands, and the familiar smell of burning wood filled the air as a fire spell swirled to life. The stupid bastards. Felix did his best not to grin. To be fair, it was a lot bigger than he expected. A flying bonfire crossed the ground, and animal instinct practically made Felix leap to the ground and cover his head. Isavey was desperately trying to get in front of him, but again he easily held her back.

The fire struck and consumed his world. He closed his eyes against the brightness, holding up a hand because magic in the face was rarely pleasant. The arcane heat surged into his body, vanishing through the cracks in his flesh and in his soul like a house fire. The mage-fire seeped into him, crackling and surging to burn and destroy everything it touched with the usual glee. Then it found his fortress.

Felix allowed himself a little snort of contempt as the fire scattered, spattering against the endless stone walls he'd built with a lifetime of discipline. The mage's pathetic heat fizzled and vanished, sucked into Felix's sweltering core. The walls weren't designed to protect him from magic. They were designed to protect everything else. Because Felix didn't need protection. He opened his eyes as he felt the spell rip apart, the power temporarily at his disposal.

He pulled the knife from his flesh with a growl, using the delightful energies to fuel his body with strength and speed. He pulled out the bloody blade, then charged down the path at an inhuman sprint, arms and legs pumping with arcane fueled violence. His opponent's eyes went wide as he emerged from the smoke unharmed, running as fast as a horse. The mage on the road raised his hand and Felix felt the blade tugging with some kind of force, but he kept it gripped tight.

He slammed into his enemy at full speed, knocking the knife-wielder several feet through the air. Then he leapt on top of him stabbing, gouging horrible, fatal wounds before turning for the others. One flat out ran. The other started another spell. Felix almost laughed as he sprinted to close the gap. Isavey was shouting something but he couldn't hear over the roar of bloodlust in his ears. Truth was, Felix liked killing men. At least the ones who deserved it. But he found mages almost always did.

All he could see and feel was their hubris, the gleeful smiles as they loosed their magic as they'd done countless times before. He'd never met a mage who didn't like killing men who couldn't fight back. Another fire spell struck his flesh in a series of pitiful bolts, all hissing and vanishing and just fueling him even more as he charged. Smoke rose harmlessly from his chest, and his enemy stared in hopeless surrender. Felix grabbed his arm and crushed his wrist. And then his shin, for good measure.

The assassin dropped with a howl of agony, and Isavey's voice finally got through.

"Please! Don't kill him! My father will want to see what he knows." Felix held back his trembling arm, almost desperate to sink in the knife for a kill. But he breathed out the magic, feeling it rise from his body as steam. The pain in his shoulder flared, then his leg, then a few other places he'd forgotten about. He groaned and tossed away the knife, ready to grab the attacker's arms and maybe tear off his shirt for a rope. Then the man started to shake and twitch and foam at the mouth.

Felix stood back and held onto Isavey. She covered her mouth and soon turned away, burying her face into his chest.

"Poison," he said, watching as the would-be killer gave a last few spasms on the ground. He'd seen a few king's servants take their own lives in such a way, rather than be held hostage by pirates—some kind of bead they held in their mouths and broke. It was rarely pleasant to watch. Isavey soon pulled away, then picked up the knife.

"You're hurt," she said, looking at his wound.

"I'll live. Let's get you to safety." Her eyes were still spooked, but she was recovering well for someone who'd probably lived in a nice palace her whole life. She met Felix's eyes, and there was a lot of emotion there he expected not to understand.

"Thank you. For protecting me." It almost made a knife in the arm worth it. The thought of what might have happened if he hadn't been there, though, seemed suddenly a terrible thing, almost too hard to contemplate. He had to get her to safety.

"You're welcome. Now let's move. Because I really doubt guys who eat poison pills would just 'run away'. That other one is still out there."