Free The Castrofax by Jenna Van Vleet Page A

he
replied.
    “Unwind has a limit on her. We best
hurry.”
    Nolen turned to the door and stopped
abruptly. It was gone. His mouth worked silently for a breath and
sent a bewildered look to Ryker.
    “Do ne be alarmed,” the man stated, taking a
wobbly but dignified step forward. “It’s an old Void illusion
pattern what keeps the door hid.”
    The fear of being trapped underground swelled
in Nolen, but he maintained his calm long enough to brace both
hands on the wall. He ran them back and forth looking for what his
eyes would not see.
    “Ack! Ne, it’s something else. Ruddy Earth
Mages meddling with what ought ne be meddled.” He made a clicking
noise in his cheek and paced the room. It took him precious little
time to cross it, and Nolen realized to his horror that the room shrank . No longer was it a vast cavern but now a common
dungeon cell.
    “Y’ betray your feelings, Princeling,” Ryker
murmured as talking to himself. Nolen put a hand against his chest
to still his breathing, his heart racing within. He stooped and ran
his hand against the wall-and-floor joint and found the triangular
void where the rock popped loose hundreds of years before. The
stone still lay at Ryker’s feet.
    Ryker gave Nolen a curious look, as if he
debated something, then his face smoothed and he nearly shrugged.
“Come,” he stated and extended a soft hand. Nolen was drawn to it
and seized it. Behind them the candle sputtered and casted haunting
shadows across the small room.
    Ryker tightened his hand and pushed it as far
into the hole as he could. Quickly a look of rapture smoothed his
creased features. In the blink of an eye, Ryker’s hair became stark
white and rose as if lifted in an unseen wind. When he moved his
eyes to Nolen’s face, the Prince saw they too were as white as new
cotton. The image nearly made him release his grip and jump back,
certain the man was a specter returned from the dead, but something
kept his grip fast.
    In a moment the dark room suddenly became
white where it should have been black, and dark where the candle
rested its light. Non-Mages were often wary and sometimes
frightened by the unusual power Mages bore, and for a moment Nolen
knew their fright. He blinked at the afterimage and snapped his
head back and forth, all semblance of control lost. The room
vanished swiftly and replaced by a white hall that rushed about
them, making Nolen loosen his grip on Ryker’s hand. Faint figures
moved in the corners of his vision while the landscape seemed
blurred and unfocused. As soon as he gathered his bearings, they
moved, or he moved; it was uncertain. This form of transportation
was power unknown, and he suspected that if he never studied or
heard of it, it could not be safe.
    Ryker tightened his grip. “Y’ don’t want t’
be doing that.” The trip through the afterimage world lasted
seconds, and as quickly as it began, it was over.
    Nolen blinked as the world became black
again. Wherever they were now, it was void of light. “That felt
good,” Ryker whispered and snapped his fingers around a collection
of white strings, creating a ball of light above his fingertips.
The light grew to illuminate the hallway Nolen had come down,
chasing the darkness back.
    “Make your way, Princeling.” Ryker nodded to
the hall. Nolen searched the mortar and stones for recognition
unsure where Ryker moved them, but he would be damned if he seemed
uncertain in front of an Arch Mage. The man’s title made Nolen
smile as he stepped out. ‘An Arch Mage, alive in my
time.’
    “Who is the strongest Mage the world has?”
Ryker asked as he followed.
    Nolen shook his head a little. “Arconia has a
few more Class Sixes than we do.” He wiped a hand across his brow.
“Though, someone once told me there was a rogue Class Ten out
there.”
    Ryker made the clicking noise in his cheek.
“Y’ might’a mentioned that before. How do y’ come by this
information?”
    “A man claiming to be his father told