Mages of Myth - Book 3 Chapter 1

Book Three
Revelation


Chapter 1


The sky turned steel gray as the mages reached a mile-wide slope that finished their journey through Rue Pass…or at least they hoped so.
Unicorn rode his unicorn along the dirt path. “I thought we were out of Rue Pass,” he said.
Pix sat behind him with her pixy sitting on her shoulder. “You’d like to think that,” she said.
Griffin, Phoenix and Pegasus rode above them. Griffin rode his griffin and hung his legs in front of the animal’s great eagle wings as they spread out on the wind. “We may find the borders soon,” he said.
Pegasus had the wind at his horse’s mercy. He rode with content ease. “Until I see a sign that says leaving Rue Pass, I won’t be satisfied.’
Phoenix rode his phoenix, not like a horse as the others did, but rather different. He lay belly-down on its back and grasped the curve of the wings where the fire harmlessly toned down.
Phoenix looked ahead. “What about that?” He pointed.
Griffin looked ahead. “Oh no,” he said. “Not another village.”
Unicorn looked hopefully up at his leader mage. “Beds,” he called up. “Warm! Blankets!”
Griffin sighed. “Fine,” he said. “But we camp out once we’re off the slope. It’s getting dark.”
Phoenix looked to the sky and shook his head. “No,” he said. “It’s merely going to rain.”
Unicorn glanced behind him to Pix. “See? Now, this is why I don’t want to camp outside.”
Pix called up to Griffin. “We can be there in less than an hour if we hurry.”
Griffin shook his head. “We’ve been hurrying all day. The animals need a rest!” He pointed toward a cave by a lone tree. “We camp there for the night!”
Phoenix eyed the landing and stroked the bare red feathers of his creature.
Once everyone dismounted from their animals, the mages sat in a circle. Phoenix held out his hand in a fist. He then flicked his fingers up from his palm and a flame flickered in his palm in return.
Pix’s pixy suddenly flew toward the hand and blew out the flame. She giggled. “No more fire,” she teased at Phoenix.
Phoenix scrambled to his feet. “Why you little—”
“Daaaaahhh!” Pix’s pixy screamed in fright
The pixy flew behind Pix’s head and hid at the nape of her neck, under her blonde hair.
Phoenix stood over Pix and growled under his breath. “Your pixy blew out my fire!”
Pix shrugged. “That’s what pixies do,” she said. “They cause mischief.”
“Well tell your pixy to cause mischief elsewhere.”
The pixy peeked out from behind Pix’s neck. She blew rude raspberries at Phoenix.
Phoenix drew in an irritated breath, and then simply waved the matter away. He walked back over to his phoenix and sat with him.
Unicorn smiled over at the tiny pixy and nodded, as if in approval. “Hey, good one…”
Griffin watched Phoenix as he sat with his creature. “You seem different somehow,” he said.
Phoenix looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“Something…” Griffin shook his head in thought. “As if something has changed…for you perhaps…”
The other mages nodded. “Yes,” Pegasus said. “I feel it as well. You’re less bitter.”
Phoenix shrugged. “Maybe I am,” he said.
Griffin turned his head. “Why? How?”
Phoenix laughed. “You guys wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Unicorn, being connected to him and vice versa, said it out loud: “It’s your phoenix,” he said. “He has absorbed something for you…from Camur…”
Griffin studied Phoenix. “Is that it?”
Phoenix waited a moment, and then nodded. “Yes,” he admitted. “That’s exactly what it is.” He paused and looked at Griffin. “I might have made Camur a personal issue, Griffin, but after what he did in Maiestas to the princess…” His tone turned solemn. “Well…I think it became a matter for all of us then.” He shifted. “Do you all understand what he did to Tabula? He absorbed her magic, her soul and life as well. You know how she turned into the oracle, right? Well, Camur absorbed that too.” He paused. “When my phoenix flew through his wall, he was able to enrapture Camur on the inside for a brief moment. In that moment, Sashae’s soul was freed from Camur…but not Tabula…”
Unicorn thought it over. “So…now Sashae is in your phoenix?”
Phoenix nodded. “Right.”
Unicorn whistled. “Now that’s magic.”
Phoenix smiled kindly, the smile he had now picked up since Sashae returned in his dreams.
Griffin smiled back at that smile. “You’re right,” he said. “It has become a matter for us all now. If Camur still has Tabula the oracle, then he can know anything he needs.”
Pegasus hummed in thought. “Only if Tabula tells him. Remember, she is still in Camur, because she is the oracle.”
Phoenix’s smile faltered. “Bless King Ruben,” he whispered for the unfortunate father.
~
At first, there was darkness; and then a light, bright as the sun came into Camur’s dreams. The summonor Ami stood beside him in chains. Ami had been forced to summon the oracle to come forward through Tabula.
Camur demanded once more at her: “Tell me! What happens when they summon the dragon?!”
Tabula hovered in mid-air, bright and luminescent in Camur’s dark. She pursed her phosphorescent lips.
Camur glared up at her. “Tell me, or you will suffer.”
The oracle spoke in a soothing voice. “You can no longer harm me, Camur. I know this and so do you. I am of pure soul and you are not. You cannot touch me.”
Camur clenched his fists. “If ye do not tell me, then others will suffer!”
Tabula shook her head and her blonde shining hair fell around her shoulders. “You can no more harm me than you can harm a spec of dust.”
Camur glared at Ami to the side of the darkness. “You’re the summonor! What she mean at that?!”
Ami stared down at his bruised, bleeding feet. “It will not hurt her if you harm anyone around her.” His chains rattled faintly as he moved his shackled wrists.
Camur swore under his breath. “Then what will it take to get something out of her?”
Ami shook his head. “I know not.”
Camur screamed out in anger—and then he woke from his dream to find Ebon snoring louder than usual nearby Camur’s makeshift bed.
Camur would not sleep well that night on their journey.