Born of Stone

Chapter Fifteen

Bastien faced his former student and shook his head in disappointment. Albain had had such potential. He had been a rising star, the youngest to be inducted into the Twenty in its long history. Now he was a broken man, stripped of his powers and left to make what life he could as a mortal human.

“Kill me,” Albain whispered.

He was hunched over, sitting on his legs and facing the floor. His hair hung in greasy ropes, clotted with sweat and dirt from the tiny cell he’d spent the past three weeks in. It hurt to see him so broken, but there was no other way.

“You know I will not,” Bastien said.

Albain finally raised his head and scowled at his former mentor. “Why not? I am worthless now. I can do no magic. I can’t even light a candle.”

“There are many men who live without magic in their lives, Albain. You will learn to live as they do.”

“And for what purpose? To farm? To raise sheep? Bah! That life is not for me.”

Bastien sighed and dropped the bundle in his arms onto the floor between them. “New clothes and shoes. You will be given provisions and a little money to make your way where you will. But I warn you, eyes will be ever watchful of your actions.”

Albain snorted but made no move to take the clothes. He hadn’t been beaten or starved. But the full force of nineteen wizards stripping every ounce of magic from his core had aged him another decade. He no longer looked like a mortal man of fifty winters, but one of sixty or more. Either way, it was a deception when his true age was nearly two hundred. And now he would begin to age like a mortal man rather than retaining the near immortality of wizards. The king had decreed this to be a just punishment since they shouldn’t have to worry about him after two or three more decades. However, Albain had always been unnaturally smart and eerily resourceful. Bastien had his doubts.

The wizard turned on his heel and left the cell, leaving the door wide open. Albain was no longer a prisoner. He had told them little, but more had been learned from the Kevan women. They were enduring their own punishments. For now they needed to find another to replace Albain so they could remain The Twenty. It was a number of power and every bit was needed to keep Halstrid safe and secure for all her people.

As he walked away, he thought he heard Albain laughing but didn’t turn around to be certain. Losing one’s magic could break the best of wizards. Bastien wasn’t optimistic Albain would survive the strain. He shook his head at the waste of such potential talent and went to seek an audience with the King.

Albain fought to hide his amusement while he dressed, but the chuckles still escaped. Take away his magic, would they? Send him out into the world a mortal man? It was all laughable, really. The Nineteen knew so little for having members who had been wizards well over millennia. Albain had learned much at his mentor’s knee. Fortunately, Bastien believed himself to be Albain’s only mentor. That was not the case, but Albain’s true mentor was dead.

He finished dressing and walked out of his cell with his back bent, eyes downcast. It wouldn’t do to let anyone know he still had enough strength to cause trouble. He would have that Wizard’s Stone or die trying. The Masters thought they were more powerful, but they knew so little. Now he had to plan again since the first plan had failed. He would round up the Kevan women and his allies in the other nations and return to Halstrid twice as strong as before. He might not be a wizard of the Twenty any longer, but that wouldn’t keep him from becoming a sorcerer.