Casting Shadows by Jeanne Cavelos

Author:Jeanne Cavelos [Cavelos, Jeanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, SciFi, Babylon 5
ISBN: 9780345427212
Goodreads: 715040
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2001-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Elric closed the door behind him, glad to be home for once before midnight. The convocation had been running more smoothly since the initiation, though there were daily crises to be handled and changes to be accommodated. He’d given his presentation on additional hyperspace currents he’d discovered, solved a food shortage, and stopped a fight between two of the Kinetic Grimlis. He’d found a private site for Blaylock and his followers to perform a mortification ritual, shuffled meetings to keep feuding parties from running into each other, and ejected Jab twice from the proceedings.

Circe had been upset that he’d missed her lecture, but as much as could be expected, the mages seemed to be enjoying themselves. The young apprentices played and learned; those new to the chrysalis had their first awkward training sessions; the initiates worked with the Kinetic Grimlis to meld a piece of their chrysalis to their new ship and master its operation. The rest of them talked, bragged, laughed, and argued.

Elric had always enjoyed these meetings, but this convocation was different. Since Galen had left, Elric had felt detached. He seemed to pass through events like a holographic illusion; nothing could touch him. He felt as if he lived in a world of Shadows, and doom, and he was the only one who could see them coming. Blaylock, he knew, felt it too, but that was little comfort. It wasn’t Blaylock’s student who had been sent into danger.

Elric stood in the middle of the main room. The lights were dark, the fire cold. The house was quiet, empty. And perhaps it would remain so from this time forth.

Elric shook off his mood, turned on some lights, and conjured a magical fire on the hearth. He had given Galen a staff, had told Galen all that he could. The Circle had determined that Galen and Isabelle must complete this task themselves. Was there nothing more he might do?

He sat at the table, found himself accessing the probe recording of Galen’s attack on Elizar. He had watched it many times the night of the attack, so much that he almost knew it by heart. But he hadn’t watched it since.

The probe on the tent had been situated a bit behind Elizar, so Elric could see only Elizar’s side and back, while Galen and Isabelle faced him. Beneath the light globes that illuminated the night, their faces seemed flat, washed out.

Elizar brought his hands to his mouth and released a sustained syllable, casting a spell.

“No,” Isabelle said.

Her fingers moved to conjure a shield.

Galen’s eyes widened, and Elric could see the moment he cast the spell, the instinctive flash from Galen’s mind to the chrysalis, like the parry of a well-trained fencer. Such fights were not uncommon. What was uncommon was the strength of Galen’s defense, a counterattack that could completely annihilate the opponent, and perhaps much more.

But did that mean he had to be sent, just out of the chrysalis, to face the Shadows, perhaps to die? Almost instantly

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