and enthusiastic young man and yet you return with a thunderstorm over your head. What happened to you in Tindal to make you so dark and troubled?’
Samuel swallowed nervously as he prepared to tell his tale. ‘I learned many hard lessons. I fell in love…I lost my love. I felt a magic inside me that seemed able to tear the stars from the sky and throw worlds to their ruin- when it felt the compulsion to actually come when I called it. I learned many great new spells, but I also learned to fear my own power. I killed men with such an untempered rage that I felt some unholy beast had taken hold of my mind. All these things I learned and I would give them up in a moment for the return of my beautiful Leila for, since she has gone, I have become a hollow and empty shell and my life has no meaning beyond avenging her death.’
Anthem nodded solemnly. ‘You are still young, yet you have already learned some of the harder lessons of life. These things of which you speak are the costs of becoming a man. Do not think you are alone in your misery, Samuel. Life is truly hard and we have all experienced loss and suffering. I would not be here at all if not for the death of everyone I loved at the hands of the Empire. My entire family-my mother and father, my sisters and brothers, all my uncles and aunts and cousins; my entire town, in fact-was slaughtered by the Emperor’s forces. Only my brother and I were spared, simply because we were in Qaldar at the time learning to be magicians. Everyone you meet has a tale of tragedy to tell, for these are hard times, Samuel.
‘Remember that you alone have a rare talent that can bring about a time of restoration to the world. Keep hold of your fears and your anger, for they are a passion which you can use to drive you, but don’t let them overwhelm you. Don’t obsess over the darkness in your life-remember the love you felt on those warm sunny days on the grass, lying in the sun with your woman in your arms.’ Samuel looked to the old man with surprise. ‘Yes, I too have felt love, long before I was a magician. I have not always been such a tired old man, and she, too, was taken away by the Empire, defiled and murdered like so many others. Yes, use your passions. Use them before they fade.’ The old man then looked up to the corner of the room with reddened eyes.
Samuel was thoughtful in the quiet, for the old man’s words rang true in his mind. He had been obsessed by his own desire for revenge, while Anthem had spent nearly all his life seeking his. The Empire was probably filled with such stories. After long moments, the old man’s words broke the silence one more.
‘Sometimes, as you say, our magic can feel so powerful that it begins to control us. When we lose control, we are not our own masters, but slaves to our primitive instincts. Only intelligence and intellect are pure and free from the stains of emotion. You must practise and learn to control yourself when you most want to let go. There is a time for such intense feelings as love and hate, as much as we magicians are capable of feeling them, but it is not when you are spelling. You should be free of these feelings and be a channel for the energies of the ether to accomplish the task at hand. When overcome by your emotions, magic can flow through you at a greater strength than you can control, dangerously so. Your spells can be incredibly powerful at times like this, but you cannot control them as you may think and it may damage you irrevocably. Do not overtax yourself, for the price of doing so must eventually be paid-as you well know. If you exert your body too much, you will simply die, for magic is by far stronger than any mortal flesh.’
Samuel nodded his head. ‘I understand.’
‘Really? Perhaps you do, but mastering oneself is one of the greatest challenges we can face. This is the true goal of any magician and one very few of us will actually reach.’
‘Do you think I will feel better once I kill Ash?’ Samuel asked.
‘I cannot say. I have always blamed the Emperor himself for my woes and when he is dead, I am sure I will feel a great weight lifted from my chest; but I do not think all the scars of such emotional burden can ever be entirely removed.’
‘And what of Ash? Do you think he is just another pawn of Lord Jarrod’s or is the Emperor or the Archmage ultimately in control?’
‘I cannot say. I am sure all of them have their own agendas, but who is to say which of them will end up on top? But if Ash’s aura is, indeed, tainted, as you say, then the dark arts may have already begun to foul him. If he has already been taken too far then he must be killed, lest he becomes a conduit for dangerous things.’
‘Do not fear, Grand Master,’ Samuel stated. ‘I will soon kill him whether he is tainted or not.’
The old man nodded. ‘It will be better when you have put your vengeance behind you. It sends shivers up my spine to hear you talk like that.’
‘It keeps me going,’ Samuel replied as way of explanation. ‘I have a question for you, Grand Master,’ he then announced. ‘I saw you challenge the other Grand Masters one time in the Great Hall. You cast a spell that drained their strength into your own. How do you work such a spell?’
‘So you know about it? Ha, ha! Of course you do! I forget you can see magic as I can see this table…or this chair,’ and he tapped on each to illustrate his point.
‘I’ve tried to emulate the spell many times, but I cannot.’
Anthem laughed aloud as the Erics were coming in through the door with a steaming hamper full of sweet- smelling food between them. ‘Ah my boy,’ Anthem said, still filled with mirth, ‘you cannot be master of everything! Allow me to have my one little secret, please! Perhaps I can teach you another time. Now, I’m starving to death. Let us feast.’
Samuel nodded solemnly as the old man snatched up the food that Goodfellow had set down and began to wolf it down like a ravenous hound.
Old Anthem sneaked in and out several times the next day, and he finally announced that the five other Lions had arrived. A meeting had been arranged for the next morning. All their trusted contacts within the Order would gather, and their plan to assassinate the Emperor would be made.
They awoke early and went to one of the many inns down near the docks, in a private room on the second floor. It was quite a tidy inn, not nearly as stinking and rancid as most of the establishments for this part of the city, stuck at the end of a winding alleyway without any sign or notice as to its name, called only after its owner-Stocky Tom’s. It was a place where merchants would meet, sailors got drunk, and harlots lingered in the smoke haze; a place where, for the right fee, your secrets could remain secret and so it was just right for the kind of meeting they were planning. At this early time of day, it was also completely empty, which was exactly what they needed for such a meeting.
Grand Master Anthem, Samuel, Lomar and Eric waited at the long beer-stained table, while Goodfellow stood out across the street, keeping watch. Goodfellow had remained in his commoner’s clothes, but the others had changed back into their black garb to give them some credibility for the meeting. Master Glim was the only one not to attend, as his presence was still required at the School for Magic and he had found no excuse to slip away unnoticed.
One by one, the men came in, various mages who had each received word from Anthem, all long time friends of his and known empathisers to his cause. All wore their long robes and each black hem was personalised with a little coloured braiding.
Tulan Goodwin came in and seated himself last, nodding to Samuel and the others, making thirteen men crowded around the table. Samuel and Eric were easily the youngest, with nearly all the men showing a good deal of grey in their hair.
They waited a fair length of time and the five Lions had still not appeared. Anthem kept glancing towards the door, but the room was getting restless.
‘Where are the Lions?’ Samuel whispered beside Anthem.
‘I’m not sure, lad,’ Anthem replied, ‘but I don’t like the feel of it. I was counting on their presence to add weight to our argument. We may have to play this by ear. Anyway, we need to start this meeting now or these old codgers will start falling asleep. I’m sure the Lions have their reasons for being delayed.’
Samuel nodded in response and sat back against the back his chair.
‘Welcome, friends,’ Anthem began and the men all became quiet and turned their attention to him. ‘It is a pleasure to see you all again. Know firstly that your lives are in danger just by being here. Such a fact represents just one of the terrible injustices the Empire has imposed upon us and, indeed, all the peoples of Amandia. At last, the time has come, after many,
There was murmuring among the men, and they all looked at each other.
‘All his life,’ Anthem continued, ‘the Emperor has been set on drawing every square of Amandia into his Empire and he has nearly succeeded several times. We have spent our lives living beneath the Emperor’s tyrannical
