He missed his hand, though. That was one thing that wouldn’t heal. For not the first time, he wished he were an archmage like his father, who could heal almost any wound when he merged with something and then returned to himself. His body could be recreated in whatever fashion was dictated by his self-image.
It wasn’t quite that simple, but he could do it, whereas Matt could not. His father had offered to try to fix it for him, but the danger was considerable. To do so, he would have to use his unique gift to listen, become Matthew, and then to reimagine his body in its original, whole form. He had done something similar once to save Elaine’s life, and he had later confessed to Matthew that he still wasn’t certain if he were the original Mordecai, or if their spirits had traded places. His father had his own memories, and she had hers, so it was a technical point; but it bothered him nonetheless.
No, Matt preferred keeping his body as it was, and his inner world private. As close as he was to his father, he didn’t relish the thought of ‘merging’ with anyone.
That didn’t mean he planned to accept the status quo, though. In his memories of the distant past, one of his ancestors had lost an arm and replaced it with a magical one. He intended to do the same.
With access to Gary’s knowledge of human anatomy and the workings of the nervous system, he thought perhaps he had a chance to do an even better job of it than his ancestor had done. If anything, he savored the challenge. If he was to be the world’s greatest enchanter, replacing a lost hand was merely the first obstacle in his path.
Of course, he wouldn’t have had Gary to refer to, if his longer-lasting, more durable self hadn’t finally walked into Castle Cameron about three weeks after Matthew’s return. His better looking, human-like android had lapsed into statue-like quiescence only days after they had gotten back, a victim of his short-lived batteries.
The military android’s RTG wouldn’t last forever, though. He had only a span of months left at most, but together they had come up with a solution.
The RTG generated power through the conversion of heat into electricity. The heat was supplied by the slow decay of radioisotopes, but any heat would work. It merely had to be steady and constant.
Creating an enchanted stone of the proper size and proportions, which would produce the right amount of heat for a long period of time, couldn’t be simpler for an enchanter like Matthew or his father. The core of the RTG was removed and buried, replaced with a heat source that would last at least a year, and one they could recharge when needed.
Gary wasn’t happy with being stuck in the military android body, however. It was cold and unexpressive. With their help, the AI came up with a plan to swap the thermoelectric power source in his military android body with the batteries in the civilian android.
It wasn’t perfect. The former RTG was a little larger than the batteries had been, so he had a noticeable bulge in his lower back, but it wasn’t anything that loose clothing wouldn’t cover, and he was pleased to have a face that could show emotion. It was also nice having a form that didn’t frighten people. No one who didn’t know him could even tell he was a machine, rather than a human.
Matthew and Karen’s relationship remained strange. They had both reluctantly accepted that everyone thought they were a couple, but neither of them were completely comfortable with it. They did things together occasionally—walks, a picnic or two—but they still weren’t ready to make any permanent arrangements.
Of course, she had been understandably angry with him for sending her back against her will. She hadn’t expressed that at first, while he was recovering, but once he was nearly back to full health, she had let him know. She had said she had forgiven him, but there was still a distant look in her eyes whenever the topic came up. He could tell he had wounded her pride, but he had no idea what to do about it.
As with most things he was helpless to change, he simply put it out of his thoughts.
But she didn’t.
***
One spring morning, several months later, Matthew was sitting with Zephyr, watching the dragon eat half a goat. His new dragon, Desacus’s descendant, was already half grown. The enchantment that created and sustained them saw to that.
Matt had somehow hoped his dragon would be more like his previous self, but his personality was different. Not bad, just different. Zephyr was more gregarious and open. He possessed a sense of humor, but it wasn’t the same as the dry, sarcastic wit that Desacus had shown.
Matt missed the dark humor.
As he watched Zephyr eat, a thought occurred to him. “You ever wonder what human would taste like?”
The dragon turned one eye to look at him and it widened with surprise, “No. Have you?”
He waved his hands. “No, no, of course not. I’m not a cannibal. I just wondered if you ever thought about it.”
The dragon coughed. “That’s disgusting. It would be like you eating horse. Would you eat a horse?”
He remembered what Desacus had said about horses and cattle. “Actually, a horse looks a lot more appetizing to me than a cow.”
The dragon regarded him as though he might be ill. “You’re sick. How about a dog, then? Humans are close to dogs too. Would you eat one of them?”
Thinking of Annie, he immediately replied, “No. Definitely not.”
Zephyr sniffed. “That’s something at least. Not sure if I trust you enough to sleep near you anymore, though. You might take it into your head to try dragon next.”
Matthew laughed. “Fair enough. But back to my original question. You’ve never thought that people might be tasty?”
The dragon swallowed his latest bite and then pushed the last of the carcass away. The conversation had made him lose his appetite. “Why would anyone think that? Not to be rude, but humans smell awful. When you bathe, you smell like flowers and grass, when you don’t bathe, it’s even worse. Not to mention all the metal, cloth, and other odd bits you people cover yourselves with. I can think of nothing worse to eat than human, and I’m beginning to question your sanity for bringing it up.”
“What if they were already dead? Like if you found someone who had had an accident?”
Zephyr narrowed his eyes to slits. “What sort of ‘accident’?”
“Maybe they fell off a cliff, for example.”
“There’s still the clothes and metal and stuff,” protested the dragon.
Matthew was undeterred. “Let’s say they were naked, or that I stripped the body for you. Or maybe—hell, say it was cooked too. How about then?”
“I would say that I need to talk to your parents,” answered Zephyr. “There’s something not right with your head. Where would you even get an idea like that?”
Matt shrugged. “Nowhere in particular. Just something I wondered, you being such a dangerous looking carnivore and all.” He refrained from bringing up Desacus. Mentioning Zephyr’s predecessor inevitably made things awkward.
Considering the dragon’s comments on how humans smelled, he decided that Desacus’s remarks had probably been all for show, since they had probably smelled the same to him. It would be just like him to come up with a topic like that just to shock his master.
He started to wipe his face with his left hand and then switched to his right. His eyes were damp for some reason, and the cold metal of his artificial hand wasn’t well suited to rubbing them.
Idly, he wondered if he should add an enchantment to warm the metal slightly, to a more human temperature. Maybe later; this was just his first prototype, after all. He had many more improvements to make first.
***
A week later Karen found him in his new workshop, where he was working on the next iteration of his prosthetic hand. Gary had suggested he use a metal called titanium, but his information on how it could be found and smelted sounded like a lot of trouble.
Matt had decided to wait until he had perfected the design in steel first. This ‘titanium’ sounded wonderful, being lighter and stronger, but he didn’t want to go to
the effort of refining it until he had his design complete beyond any question of a doubt.
He realized Karen had been watching him for several minutes without speaking, so he glanced up at her. “Hello.” As his eyes took her appearance in, he noticed she wasn’t wearing her usual clothes. She had been wearing the dresses that were favored by the young noblewomen of Lothion, but today she was clad in the enchanted leathers he had given her before her last trip to his world, tough trousers and a tailored leather jerkin that managed to display her feminine frame despite its masculine connotations.
He thought she looked good, and he had never been overly concerned with what others had considered ‘proper.’ The look on her face told him that there was more to it than that, though.
She met his eyes with her own for a moment, then looked down at his project. “I came to say goodbye.”
His mind went blank. Not a single word suggested itself to him.
After waiting a while, she leaned in and gave him a light kiss. She looked at him again, watching his reaction, but when he didn’t reply, she started to turn away, “Well, thanks for everything. I mean that.”
“Huh?” His first word was anything but articulate.
She stopped. “I said I was leaving. Is ‘huh’ all you can think of?”
“What?” He was improving; he had managed a real word, and one that might even be considered a proper question.
Her expression was suspicious. “Were you even listening to what I said?”
He knew the answer to that one. “You said goodbye.” After a moment, he even came up with his own question: “Why?”
Exasperated she responded, “Because I’m leaving.”
“I got that,” he told her. “What I mean is, why are you leaving?”
Karen smiled; she had his full attention at last. “Because I need to. Since coming here, I’ve been completely dependent. That’s not who I am.”
“I don’t think anyone thinks that about you,” countered Matt. “I don’t.”
“I know you don’t,” she reassured him, “but it’s how I feel. Your world is completely new to me. It’s an opportunity to rewrite my life, to be someone new, but I can’t do that by just accepting your family’s generosity. I need to go out and make my own way.”
“Couldn’t you make your own way—here?”
She shook her head. “You’re sweet, but no. I need to do this on my own. Besides, I won’t be so far away. This talent I’ve inherited means I can be anywhere I want to be, provided I’ve been there before. I’ll come back to visit regularly, or for baths if nothing else.” The twinkle in her eye told him the last part was only a joke.
“My gift could be incredibly useful,” she added. “But I need to travel, to develop it. The more places I go, the better it becomes. Think about it—I could wake up, have breakfast in one place, and then later have dinner on the other side of the world. My life here could be extraordinary, but only if I travel to make it a reality. I need to discover what’s out there.”
“Alone? The road can be a dangerous place, especially for a woman,” he cautioned.
Karen laughed. “I may not be the most powerful wizard, but I’m one of only a handful, or so you told me. Who could threaten me? And if I did meet someone or something too dangerous to face, how could they keep me from escaping? With just a thought I can be back here, where most of the world’s most dangerous mages are gathered.”
“Won’t you be lonely?” He surprised himself with that question. He had never felt a particular need for company, yet now he was suggesting it to her.
“At first,” she admitted. “But that’s also partly what this is about. I need to make my own friends. I want to meet people. Being able to traverse the world in a blink of an eye means I can always visit any new friends or acquaintances whenever I want, but I have to make them first.”
“What about Gary?”
“He can stay here,” she told him. “I think he’s happiest here, helping you. It gives him a sense of purpose. Besides, who wants a parent along on their first road trip?”
“It sounds like you’ve done a lot of thinking about this,” he observed.
She nodded.
“Just be careful. Remember, even a nutjob isn’t invincible. If you trust the wrong people, you could be hurt. Poison affects us just like everyone else.”
Karen began to laugh, long and hard.
“What?” he asked, somewhat nonplussed.
When she finally stopped, she answered, gasping for air, “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. That word doesn’t mean what you think it does.”
He was rather annoyed when he discovered what it actually meant, and slightly embarrassed when he recalled the various times he had used it without knowing, back in her world. It cast his final monologue with his adversary in an entirely different light.
She left after that, and he stared at the spot where she had stood for several minutes before returning to his work. Or at least he tried to. He found himself unable to concentrate properly for the rest of the day. It wasn’t until the following afternoon that he was able to focus on what he was doing.
But he did. His work was enthralling, and nothing held his attention the way a complex problem could. In his mind, he was already moving ahead to the one after it. He had no lack of ideas.
As the days went on, he perfected his hand design and then he began constructing a replacement for the Fool’s Tesseract, though this would be an improved version. Now and then he stopped, and found himself wondering what Karen was doing or what she was seeing, but after daydreaming a while, he always returned to the project at hand.
Somehow, he knew he would see her again.
Coming Late in 2017:
Mordecai
The world that began in the popular Mageborn series continues with a new series focused once again on Mordecai; the son of a blacksmith, a nobleman by birth, and heir to a magical legacy; in a story that will unite characters from all three series, Mageborn, Embers of Illeniel, and Champions of the Dawning Dragons. Mordecai, his children, and even his distant ancestor, Tyrion, will come together to face the ancient enemy that once drove even the She’Har from their homeworld.
For more information about the Mageborn series check out the author’s website:
www.magebornbooks.com
Or interact with him more directly on his Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/MagebornAuthor
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 40
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Epilogue
Michael G. Manning, Demonhome
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