Page 45 of The Princess of Portals

Fenris led us down the narrow, winding passageway. Several of his warriors took up the rear, just in case we tried anything. But what could I even try? I didn’t know where in the vast Many Realms I was, or how to get back home. I was still figuring out this whole magic thing, and inter-realm teleportation wasn’t for newbies. Honestly, I was kind of surprised that my last teleportation spell had worked.

We came to a large hall. It looked nearly identical to the hall I’d arrived in—with one notable difference. This hall wasn’t empty. It was full. Full of people. Full of cages. Full of people in cages. There were three of them in cages right now, all teenagers. Another seven people were positioned in two straight lines. They performed a series of fitness exercises in perfect synch as a warrior shouted out commands.

I’d found the missing Apprentices.

CHAPTER 2

THE APPRENTICES

Iwatched the Apprentices training in the hall. “You’re adding them to your army? Why go through all the effort to kidnap Apprentices from Gaia? Don’t you already have enough warriors? What difference can just a handful of Apprentices make to you?”

“All the difference in the Many Realms,” Fenris replied.

Well, wasn’t he cryptic?

Queen Seriana’s gaze panned across the hall, her expression darkening. “He’s not just made them his warriors. He’s made them his Polymages.”

I gaped at her in shock. Words failed me.

“Look there.” She indicated the six smaller cages hanging on each of the three big cages with Apprentices inside. “Six cages, six spirits. One for each branch of magic.”

I hadn’t even noticed that, but there was indeed a spirit trapped inside each of those small cages, a tiny flicker of colored light pulsing like a firefly. The spirits were so bright and beautiful. How had I missed them? Whatever Fenris had given me to knock me out had hit me hard, my mind as much as my body. I needed to clear my head fast. If I was going to get out of this mess, I would definitely need to have my wits about me.

“This is your master plan, Fenris,” Seriana realized. “You captured spirits. I don’t know how you did it, but you found a way to drain the spirits’ magic and transfer it to these young Gaian Apprentices.”

“Jealous?”

“It’s unnatural, Fenris.” Seriana cast a scornful look upon her son. “You saturated the Apprentices with all six kinds of magic to create Polymages. That shouldn’t be possible, and it’s definitely not natural. You are dabbling in dark magic.”

“This is how Polymages are made,” Fenris said.

“No one knows how Polymages are made.”

“I do.” Fenris’s chin turned upward. Defiance burned in his eyes. “It took centuries, but I finally know.”

When Fenris said centuries, I realized two things.

One, that the concept of a Polymage was far older than I’d thought. It went back further than Conner and Kato and me.

And two, that Fenris himself was far older than I’d ever imagined.

What did that mean for me and Kato and Conner? How had we become Polymages? I certainly couldn’t remember ever being locked in a cage and bombarded with magic. I’d had magic my whole life, long before the Blending ceremony. What did it mean? Was there more than one way to become a Polymage?

“You are playing with forces you do not understand, Fenris,” Seriana said. “It’s wrong. Magic works in very particular, very defined ways.”

“Then explain her.” Fenris pointed at me.

Seriana shook her head. “I can’t.”

“Exactly.”

“I don’t know how Polymages came to be, but I do know this abominable experiment of yours is not the way. There is an order to the Many Realms, an order which makes everything work. You have disrupted that order.”

“Your mind is so small. So unimaginative.” He grabbed his mother’s jaw roughly in his hand, giving her a stony glare. Then, he shoved her away, disgusted. “I used to think you were so mighty, so terrifying. But you’re nothing. You’ve done nothing. Nothing but play the same old game, over and over again. I am changing that game.”

“Foolish boy. You don’t even realize what you’ve done. You can’t just burn the laws of magic and expect there to be no consequences.”

“Only you need to fear the consequences of what I’m doing,” he replied. “I will change everything. And then you and all of the other small-minded leaders of today will fall by the wayside. You will be obsolete.” He turned his gaze on his new Polymages. “Look at them, Mother. See how strong they are. They are the future.”