Unlocking Void (Book 3) Read online

  Unlocking Void

  The Father of the Fifth Age Book Three

  By Jenna Van Vleet

  Edited, Produced, and Published by Writer’s Edge Publishing 2014

  All rights reserved.

  © 2014 by Jenna Van Vleet.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Other Books by Jenna Van Vleet

  The Father of the Fifth Age series

  The Castrofax

  Breaking Stars

  Unlocking Void

  Chasing Bloodlines

  Felling Kingdoms

  Dedicated to: My parents, Steve and Annette Nielsen,

  who didn’t let me starve as an artist.

  Chapter 1

  Something was terribly wrong with Gabriel, or so Robyn told herself. The sincerity in his smile was a lie; the mirth in his laugh was fake, and the frequency in which he slipped into his own world when people around him talked was growing. No one noticed it because no one knew Gabriel like she did. Something terrible was brooding behind those blue eyes, and he would divulge none of it.

  Queen Robyn Bolt of Anatoly sat behind the lavishly-carved desk in her study with a pile of papers to her left and a servant to her right pouring tea. She had been sitting too long, but today she was morally bound to attend to all written matters. Some were enjoyable, like reading congratulations from her subjects and accepting gifts, but two months after her coronation, few now came. Much of the current parchments were reports regarding her kingdom; everything from recruiting new soldiers, to the state of their food reserves as they prepared for the heart of winter. If she knew leading a kingdom would be so tedious, she would have stayed away with Gabriel.

  “Oh, Gabriel.” Robyn audibly sighed. The servant stepped forward to attend, but she waved a hand away. She expected him to stride in—without knocking as was his custom—beaming an insincere smile, garbed in white, but he was days away in Castle Jaden where he spent most of his time. If either of them knew how difficult leading an entire kingdom would be, they would have reconsidered.

  A knock sounded on the door, and the guard opened it revealing Lady Mage Aisling. She glided in, bathed in a dress of dark gray dripping with pearls.

  “Good morning,” Aisling smiled sincerely and stepped up to Robyn’s desk.

  “Is it? Page, tea for the Lady, please.”

  Aisling took the cup and saucer and sat before the desk. She brought with her a parchment of papers, and perched them on her knee. “Whether the morning is good or not is never up for consideration. It is always good to live and see another morning.”

  “Despite what you think, your optimism is not infectious.”

  Aisling tittered and set the cup down. “I know you dislike paperwork.”

  Robyn leafed through the pages before her. “Is it really important that I am informed of how much stone has been quarried and shipped to my harbor? I fail to see how this is significant.”

  “You should know in case you are questioned by the public.”

  Robyn lifted her eyebrows in an irritated expression and nodded. “I rob you of your reason from coming.”

  Aisling set her papers before Robyn. “Treasury tallies.”

  Robyn spent years studying mathematics and how to best apply formula to run a kingdom, and as she stared at the numbers, she visibly sunk in her chair. “Page, would you fetch us something stronger? No, wine. That kind of stronger. Guard, see he makes it without sampling the goods.” The two men left, closing the door behind them.

  “Aisling, with this kind of influx with our current outgo, we are going to be bankrupt this time next year.”

  “I came to the same conclusion.”

  “My mother struck a silver load,” Robyn muttered and leafed through her papers. “That should have supplemented taxes and made us rich.” She yanked a paper free. “This is all that has come out of the mine in the last month? Are there no better ways to free it?”

  “Unfortunately, no. I sent Cordis to survey the rocks, and he returned last night to report the mine is nearly dry.”

  “Did he look for more?”

  Aisling shook her head. “He does not possess those qualities. He can simply read the rock better than the miners.”

  Robyn shut her eyes and gritted her teeth. “Do I raise taxes? Do I add more taxes? I cannot have my first acts to be against the people.” Her eyes flashed open. “How did this happen?”

  “Blame Queen Miranda’s lack of thrifty spending, blame me for not being harder on her, blame the soldiers, blame the mines. Regardless, blaming never solves our problems.” Aisling sipped her tea. “There is a more obvious solution.”

  Robyn glanced at the door as if expecting Gabriel. “I hate to make requests of him when he is so busy.”

  “He is never too busy to aid you.”

  Robyn sighed. “Does he seem different to you?”

  Aisling raised her brows. “I could not say.” Aisling did not know Gabriel like Robyn did. Despite birthing the boy, she knew him as well as she knew a passerby in the streets. “Though, he does seem less cheerful.”

  ‘That he does.’ Robyn set the pages aside. “Have you word from him?”

  “I hoped he would visit this week, but after our last Council Meeting, he said Mage Lace had been feeling ill, and he did not want to tax her more than he needed.”

  Robyn contained her grimace. With every visit he seemed a little more distant, a little less gentle, and his eyes held a hundred stories he would not reveal. She wished she could better understand him, but so much of him had changed since his capture. She was not sure he even understood himself.

  The ceramic vase crashed to the floor in a splash of shattered glass, and Gabriel broke from his nightmare. It took him a moment to realize he was awake, and relief washed over him. He breathed deeply and sat up to see the splintered ceramic across his floor. Water from the vase slowly traced lines in the floorboards as it spread away. It was the third time he could remember thrashing out in his sleep.

  He put a hand through his hair to smooth the muss and fluffed the front of his shirt. He was sweating despite the chill in his rooms. The nightmares had been with him since the Castrofax had been removed, mixing into daymares and flashbacks of the month he spent in Nolen’s charge. When Head Mage Casimir died to save him, he only saved Gabriel’s body; the mind was an entirely different subject.

  He slid off the other side of the bed and shuffled his way to the washroom, squinting as the cracks in the curtains traced morning’s lines across his face. The mirrors confirmed he looked as drained as he felt, but dunking his head in a water basin slightly improved his disposition. Tossing his wet ringlets about he threw open a curtain to see what morning brought.

  From his tower he could see most of Castle Jaden and much of the surrounding countryside. The Greynadaltyne Mountains spread out surrounding him, sweeping to the east down to the cultivated planes where small villages dotted the landscape. High up on the mountain, Castle Jaden was the perfect city: self-sustaining, unbreachable, and massive. It was the perfect place to keep an entire race preserved.

  That was Gabriel’s job.

  Born unnaturally powerful and wielding four of the six Elements, it had fallen to him to be the protector of the Mages in this dangerous time. Awoken from hibernation by Mage Prince Nolen, the legendary Arch Mage Ryker Slade had risen once more to wreak havoc on the lands. Gabriel was appointed guardian, for everyone knew he was the only man who could stand up to Ryker in battle.

&nb
sp; Gabriel sauntered into his long dressing room and grabbed whatever his hands touched. It wasn’t like it mattered. All his garments were white, so everyone would know his position. It seemed the most grievous thing he could do was mix silver gilt with gold. He halfheartedly checked the coat and trousers to make sure they matched.

  In the two months since Gabriel’s freedom from the Castrofax, he had yet to see Ryker, and the man’s absence made Gabriel very concerned. If he was not trying to break into Jaden, then he was out wrecking someone else’s life. In the meanwhile, Gabriel tended to the affairs of the castle and researched. There was a way to find Ryker, but Gabriel had not solved that puzzle yet.

  Gabriel accepted the Head Mage position shortly after the previous Head Mage died, and he assumed the Seat within two weeks. Castle Jaden was his home now, far away from Anatoly City, but it served as a beautiful location. His quarters were spacious and built out of the dark gray mountain stone, decorated with blues and light grays. He shared an anteroom with Lael which led to a sitting room for entertaining, his main study, and his bedchamber. All were built with a slight curve in the walls because of the shape of the tower.

  He opened the bedchamber door, and Mage Mikelle waited for him in his study. Swathed in purple, she was one of the few things that had not changed over the past two months. She even refused to adopt the warmer dresses of the mountains and retained her Arconian garb.

  “Breaking things again?” She sent him a narrow-eyed glare as she laid plates out for breakfast. When his cook wasn’t fast enough, Mikelle brought his meals up and dined with him. His cook was never fast enough.

  “I woke with it like that.”

  “We should be concerned if people are sneaking into your room and breaking your things.”

  The study was a large room with an entire wall of windows which he kept his back to as he worked at his desk. To his left was a large hearth, and beside that was a door to a library long enough to lay a table. Gabriel glanced at his desk, but Lael had not left anything new since last night, so he joined Mikelle at the table against the window.

  “Did you hear it fall?” he asked.

  “I could feel the water creeping when I walked in. You either broke another vase or missed the privy.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I haven’t done that since last week.”

  She made a guttural noise of revulsion. “Lael did want me to tell you, but he found another mention of Void in a book last night.”

  Gabriel brightened. “What did it say?”

  “It said Void should be circumvented, but I think the word he meant was avoided.” She chuckled silently.

  “Once again, your understanding of our language is laughable.” He lifted the lid on the crockery and spooned savory oatmeal and eggs onto her plate. “I keep finding the same things in my manuscripts.”

  “I am just tired of waiting for them to strike. I think I would be relieved if Nolen showed up on our doorstep.”

  He grimaced. It was a topic they often discussed. “Where were Nolen and Ryker?” “Had they succeeded in raising Arch Mages from the dead?” He was certain Ryker was behind the reports of female Mages vanishing from their homes, and over the past month, he heard rumors of non-Mage males going missing as well. Despite Ryker’s allusiveness, no one in the castle had relaxed. No one had forgotten the battle for Gabriel’s life especially when Ryker presented himself. Specters also walked the land aimlessly. New Mages traveling from the far reaches of Parion and Cinibar arrived weekly seeking safety. For the first time since the Mage Wars, the castle hummed quietly with several thousand voices.

  “I’m not sure what I would do if he did,” Gabriel replied.

  Mikelle made a fist and shook it. He nodded. “Will you visit the City today?”

  “I should. How is Lace feeling?”

  Mikelle shrugged and swallowed a bite. “She has been…the word is…” she made a hand gesture from her mouth, “upchucking.”

  “That’s not the right word.”

  “Yet you understood me. She is still poorly but will go with you to Anatoly. I would volunteer to occupy your time today, but I had another family from Aidenmar arrive last night, and I must show them the castle.”

  “So many duties, so few hours.”

  Three months previous, Arch Mage Ryker captured and murdered two Mage Council Members, giving Gabriel the opportunity to put someone he wanted on the Council. His father Cordis had already accepted the position before Gabriel swore in, leaving one spot free. Gabriel wanted someone he trusted, someone who had earned the trust of not only Mages, but high-ranking officials, in particular, royalty. He needed a previously unestablished tie to a country. Mikelle practically assumed the position before it was offered. She acted as his scribe and while Secondhand Lael advised him in Mage affairs, cultures, and politics, she advised him on relationships and—most importantly to her—appropriate clothing.

  Mikelle had been sent to Anatoly City as an agent to King Victor of Arconia. She was to spy on his wife, and once Gabriel was free of the Castrofax, he sidestepped Mikelle to the King so she could give a proper report. With King Victor’s blessing, she swore her allegiance to Gabriel and returned to Castle Jaden as his confidant and informant. While some of the Council did not like the idea of an Arconian serving with them, during her first week, she found three dissenters and organized those with idle hands to search Madison Library for books on Void.

  “Lace usually feels better in the later mornings.”

  “What makes her so ill here?”

  She shrugged her shoulders and mouthed ‘you do’.

  He gave her a flat look. They finished their breakfast, and Gabriel sat behind his desk. The ancient, marble-covered piece sat hundreds of Head Mages, and it looked as though a child currently resided behind it. Books marked with pencils and scraps of paper stood in haphazard piles mixed with scrolls and parchment. Paragraphs were circled and sentences underlined. All the information detailing the forbidden and elusive Element of Void sat on his desk. Mikelle had to copy all the notes down into a book, and it was slow work. Together with a group, they read every book written before the Mage Wars when Void was still practiced. A stack of slender leather bound books sat beside his desk for his reading pleasure.

  Ryker Slade displayed his control of the Element when he met Gabriel. He had appeared in a cloud of black strings and vanished just as easily. It was an art form of something called a shift. It was an ancient form of travel, and one Gabriel had found quite a few notes on. Sidestepping bent the fabric of the landscape to stand in one place and suddenly bringing in another. But shifting moved the world moved around the wielder. It took a little longer than sidestepping, but it required only one Element rather than five.

  Gabriel made it very clear when he took the Head Mage Seat that he needed to learn Void in order to best Ryker. It had taken them over a month to acquire the books on his desk. Someone even found a tapestry in their rooms detailing a pattern that would put a man to sleep, but all of it was useless because no one knew how to unlock Void.

  Void was the opposite Element of Spirit, and only Spirit Mages could use it, but its methods had been absent in their search. They knew that Spirit used kinetic energy to fuel patterns, and Void used the energy of the dead. It allowed a Mage to put one foot in the spirit world, the veiled existence hidden from the living. Where Spirit could heal the body, and its versatility fashioned clothes and formed weapons, Void affected the mind as well as the body.

  Mikelle set the dishes on a tray, wiped off her hands, and assumed her seat beside his desk where she spent hours daily writing out everything he detailed.

  “How many patters do you have written out?” he asked as he thumbed through a new book.

  “Six.”

  “Here’s another.”

  “Set it with the others.”

  He sighed as he sat behind the desk and picked up another book. “I wish I had staff to read all these.”

  “You do.”

  “Not
these books.” He flicked his hand lazily and turned the page with a green Earth pattern. Head Mage Casimir had left him quite the collection of books meant only for his eyes. For every book he finished, there were another hundred waiting.

  “You can trust me to read them?”

  “I will when you become Head Mage someday,” he mumbled, slowly losing himself to the book and his thoughts.

  Mikelle quietly scrawled in her book as she copied the fine print in the parchment, but out of the corner of her eye, she watched Gabriel. Her newest and most excellent friend, Queen Robyn enlisted her spying services weeks prior, but Mikelle had little news to report. Robyn was concerned Gabriel was thinking too much about his time with Nolen, but Mikelle knew very little of how the brain worked, and she did not know what to look for. He had nightmares, and sometimes he stared into space only to rapidly blink and return to reality, but everyone did that….

  Still, the more time she spent with him, the more she wondered if he had not yet recovered from his time in the Castrofax. It was not fair to assume he had, but with all the demands placed on him, it was easy to forget he had a life before being Head Mage. She grinned slyly. ‘Head Mage.’ She often had to remind herself she was friends with the most powerful man in the world. No one could stand up to the title of Head Mage, and while his salutation protected him, he was also the most gifted and powerful Mage in his Elements. No one wielded more than two Elements, and none higher than a Class Six. To wield four at a Class Ten and to be a Creator, someone able to make new patterns, made him born out of his time. If anyone asked him to explain, he simply smiled in that suspicious way that meant he held a secret. He would reply that he was an Anomaly, the only word they had to explain him.

  Mikelle was happy to report that his appetite returned. During his imprisonment, he had lost much of his will to do anything, but after a bit of nagging that he was too skinny, he finally began to put weight back on. He almost looked as he had the day she met him, lean but proportionally rounded where it counted. As she explained to Robyn, she finally had something to pinch.