Circles, Chapter 1.0

Circles

Chapter 1.0

Maze of Madness

"I'm not going to do this," I said, throwing down the overshirt.

Jasone looked at me. As always, his mouth twisted as if he couldn't imagine how stupid I was.

Alissa frowned at us both. Not that I cared what a swamp witch thought.

"Please," Glemma sighed, pushing her long blonde braids away from her face. "Must we go through this again?" She stomped over to me and waved her finger in my face. "We have to wear matching overshirts for the Test. We voted. You lost. We wear Jasone's dragon."

"I'm not going to do it," I said again, although I knew I would have to. I hated the smug expression on Jasone's face just like I hated his rich family, his noble line, his perfect scores in Written, and his athletic skills. Why he got grouped with us remained a mystery. The only redeeming value about it was that he hated being with us as much as we hated him being there.

"I don't like the dragon, either," Alissa said.

Glemma rounded on her. "You voted for it! It's too late now to change your mind."

Alissa shrugged. "Not changing my mind. I didn't like it when I voted for it. But at least it's real."

"The Phoenix is -- was real," I said.

"No proof of that," Alissa said. "None." She stepped over to her desk. "And Mamaboy there wouldn't have paid for any other design."

Jasone scowled at her. "I told you not to call me that."

"Yes, I know," Alissa said, looking unconcerned.

With My Othereyes, I saw magick build briefly in Jasone before he thought better of it. Alissa's home might be the backward swamps of Nola Scrone, but she was easily his match.

"I get so tired of all of you," Glemma said with an exasperated sigh. "Why my parents sent me to this godsforsaken Circle is beyond me!"

"Because they're poor and can't afford better," Jasone said bluntly.

Glemma glared at him. "Then why did you get sent here ... Mamababy?"

Light flared around Jasone. He might be daunted by Alissa, but Glemma didn't carry the swamp witch's power.

"That's enough," Derry, the fifth member of our happy quintet, said quietly. He looked up from his book. "We will be Tested tomorrow. Perhaps we shouldn't waste magick."

Jasone sneered, but he turned away. While Alissa may have held more sheer raw power, Derry wielded his with a careful competence that intimidated everyone. If we had a leader, the unhappy role fell to Derry. But even his skills couldn't forge a unit out of the misfits in this room.

"I don't understand," Alissa said. "Why?"

She left the rest of her question unsaid. We had certainly discussed it endlessly over the past three weeks, ever since Mage Argent announced Aspirants would be Tested in groups. He gave no explanations for this change that upended more than hundred generations of tradition. Not that anyone asked him for one. Circle Mongarth be the poorest Circle in the Empire, but everyone feared Mage Argent. No one understood why he choose this backward Circle when any of the richer ones were his for the taking. People whispered the death of his wife had driven him insane years ago. Perhaps so. Argent didn't share his mind with other Mages and certainly not with Aspirants.

"What difference does it make?" Jasone said abruptly. "When we're dead, the reasons won't matter." He left the main room and entered his room, slamming the door behind him.

"It's to give us a better chance of surviving," Glemma said. "Five of us are better than one of us. That's why they did it. That's what my father says. And he should know." She frowned when none of us agreed. "I'm going to bed."

She stomped into her room.

Derry returned to reading his book. Alissa rose and walked out onto the little balcony. I followed her, not seeking her company, but not ready to go my little room.

In the crisp air, I looked out over the huge circular courtyard. Like all the Circles, Mongarth's buildings were arranged around the courtyard like spokes of a wheel. Three dorms for the Aspirants, one of which was empty due to the rotten roof; the dining hall; two buildings where we were schooled in the Written Ways; a stable; a guest house reserved for use by nobles; the gym; the library; and the two halls that housed the Mages. Flaking paint and weathered wood revealed the shabby condition of the Mongarth in general, but the Mages insisted we keep the courtyard tidy, replacing the paving bricks as necessary and trimming the grass back.

One more small building squatted to our left, but I chose to not look there. We would enter it in three days, and unless the gods smiled on us, we would die.

(Copyright 2011 by Stephen B. Bagley. All rights reserved. No copying without prior express written permission.)  

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