by Jamie Hawke
“Does that explain the clothes?”
I was about to defend myself but Rianne laughed. “Oh, Kordelia, you’ll understand much sooner than you realize.”
That earned a confused look from the latter. Considering her tough demeanor even next to the warrior lady, it was a kind of fun look on her.
“There’s no simply waking up from this.” Rianne faced me, eyes heavy with sorrow. “This is the only way, I know that. But promise me you will find us, that you will do what is right.”
“I promise.”
With that, she placed a hand on her chest. Blue light appeared there, glowing brighter as it formed a sphere until it was as large as a balled fist. She took the light, held it as the glow faded to what looked like a ball of metal, and then held it out to me.
“I offer you the Liahona, so that it might guide you to us when the time is right.”
I took it, nodding, feeling the light metal in my hands. “What now?”
Rianne turned to her fellow ladies. “We get you to the mountain’s heart, where we will wait to defend the key to Avalon. The land will call upon us when it is needed most.”
“Yenifer,” Rianne said, giving her a pleasant nod. “It’s an honor to have you fighting for us, as always.”
“Thank you, high priestess,” the large woman with the axes replied.
“We’ll find Irla on the way,” Aerona said. “She was out on a scouting mission.”
“You will need her,” Rianne said.
Aerona nodded in understanding.
“If that’s all, then, you should be off. The time is at hand.”
As if on cue, a gust of wind blew through the cracks of the structure. There was no doubt that wind spelled danger. As the ladies and the two other men in the room had already gone to the door, throwing it open and charging outside, I followed. Before exiting, though, I turned to the familiar sound of chanting.
There was Rianne, arms spread and robes fluttering against her body as wind pushed around her, purple and blue magic flowing like streams of light as it lifted her off the ground.
“Out, now!” Ebrill shouted as she grabbed me and pulled me with her.
As soon as we exited, the place exploded outward. Rianne rose into the sky, and the wood, along with her streaming light, shot out to target what I now saw were flying beasts moving in for the attack.
Whatever power had been keeping the enemy armies at bay was now gone—the Liahona, I realized. If I failed, all of the sacrifice that was about to happen would be for nothing.
90
Armies charged after us in pursuit, ranging from goblins and dwarves to monsters that rose from the ground in bursts of lava and darkness. Drow that had so recently been our allies suddenly turned on us, and winged beasts like I had encountered on the rooftop of my aunt’s place swept down from the skies.
No matter what they threw at her, though, Rianne held off wave after wave of the enemy, her magic lashing about in bursts like solar flares, then swirling around that camp, luring more of the enemy to their deaths.
“Stick together,” Aerona shouted to our party. “If we move as one, they can’t stop us.”
I glanced back, wondering how she could say that, considering the sheer weight of numbers against us. Had this been only a couple of days before, I would have been curling up and screaming, maybe rocking back and forth and thinking it was part of an episode. Now I had magic, though, and knew I was a bit of a badass.
Let them come, I thought, casting defense as I prepared. At least I would figure out a way to take down as much of their army as I could before falling.
Two rock trolls came rolling down from the hillside to our left, charging us to do battle, as a line of flying beasts caught up to us and made to block our route. Yenifer had both axes out and leaped to catch one on the back of a flying beast, using that as leverage to swing herself onto the back of another and start hacking away. Aerona and Gertrude sent explosive spells at the rock trolls, while the two men with us took up the rear with me and Ebrill, as goblins and orcs riding on deformed creatures that reminded me of hogs and panthers caught up.
I slammed one of these weird mounts with a stun spell that sent its rider tumbling right into the path of one of Yenifer’s axes. Turning to attack another, I ducked as blades flew overhead only to vanish and appear swirling around a man’s head as he descended on us. He thrust out with a hand and the blades attacked again. One of the men on our side pulled me out of the way as a shield of flames burst out to burn his attacker, but he took a slice across the other arm in the process. One of the other riders connected with Yenifer and knocked one of her axes to the ground before receiving a blast from Aerona that removed his head. I was somewhere between shock and determination to live, casting stuns in every direction I could think of. In that moment, I swore to myself that I would learn some legit attack spells as soon as possible.
Yenifer recovered her axe and knocked her attacker to the ground, but was distracted by another attacker, this one riding a wild boar. The man on the ground shifted and pointed his hand at her, and I knew something bad was coming if nobody intervened. Everyone seemed busy, and I was too far away.
Still, I took a step toward her, shouting. My foot hit a loose stone and I had an idea. After quickly stowing the Liahona within my new attire, I picked up the stone, used my elemental strike spell to fill it with fire and threw it, all in one fluid motion.
It hit and exploded like a grenade. Maybe too much power, I realized, and also understood that I wasn’t as helpless as I’d thought.
The force sent Yenifer off balance, so that Gertrude had to step in to stabilize her. Combined, that duo was a force to be reckoned with, casting spells left and right while Ebrill and the others led the charge forward.
I paused long enough to pick up as many pebbles as I could, then filled them with the fire spell and threw them as we charged. Lines of those beast riders met my mini-grenades, and now we were advancing with speed.
“Nice work,” Gertrude said, giving me a nod of approval before sending two counter-spells at an enemy who had just sent a wave of fire our way. The wave broke, replaced with a horse of ice that dove at the spell caster. He brushed it aside, but it was all the distraction Aerona needed to land a burst of wind that sent him into the air, flying far enough away that he wouldn’t be a bother to us in the near future, if he even survived the fall.
I dove for cover as two Drow joined the dagger-magic guy, and threw myself behind a rock outcropping alongside Ebrill.
“On three,” Ebrill said, nudging a larger rock my way with her foot. Clanging of blades on rock sounded, and then we were up, her doing a defensive spell while I imbued the rock and sent it flying. The three attackers were blown away, at least two arms separating from bodies, a haze left in their wake.
“We have to keep moving!” Ebrill shouted.
“She’s right,” Gertrude added, charging past us from where she left four corpses in her wake. “Form ranks! Push on!”
Her hands thrust forward and created a beam of light around us that then shot forward as we charged again, so that the light was like an arrow that knocked our enemies out of our path. Aerona had a spell like a wake of fire trailing out to give pursuers pause, but our enemy had their own spells and were pushing on.
All the while, my heart was about to explode, my eyes bugging at the insanity of it all. Back on my aunt’s roof, it had been night and maybe part of me hadn’t quite accepted it. Here, though, we were in the midst of the magic battle, surrounded by massive displays of magic and armies of creatures that I had thought could only exist in fairy tales.
Ebrill met my gaze and shouted, “Too much for you?”
“I have a few tricks up my sleeve,” I replied, and hit a flying beast with a stun spell, sending it to crash into the rocks behind us.
“You can do better than that,” she said with a laugh, then caught a rock troll with a blue blast that made it solidify into one giant stone.
I nodded, scanning my scr
een for what spells I had learned, glad that the screen wasn’t visible to others. How anyone ever memorized all of these and kept track of them, I couldn’t begin to understand. Just then, I noticed another level up! That meant even more potential spells at my disposal. I quickly added the points and assessed my spell screen.
The screen showed that my level could access a specific set of spells, and I realized I must have either scanned a certain portion of the book, or it was adapting to meet my situation. This seemed the case because the new spells I saw were now related to stone and ice magic. Higher level spells included Frost Footing and Ice Wall.
The new screen showed the old spells, but I skimmed over those, reading:
Level 4 MAGE
Statistics
Strength: 13
Defense: 10
Speed: 10
Luck: 8
Charisma: 8
Mana: 400
Recent Spells
Gorffwys (sleep); Frost Footing; Ice Wall
I turned the corner and saw a line of Drow with arrows at the ready, releasing as one. As the arrows flew, they transformed into purple flames that penetrated the first wall Gertrude threw up but fizzled at a defensive spell from Ebrill. Another volley came from our left and I spun, managing to try the ice wall spell at the last minute. Arrows hit and exploded so that ice hit us, but nothing deadly.
Aerona led the counterattack with magic, Yenifer with weapons. The first group of traitorous Drow managed a counter-spell that sent her magic to burst into flames at the mountainside, but an attack from Ebrill and then Gertrude left their skin bubbling, some collapsing with hands clutching their throats. I tried my frost footing spell on the other group as Gertrude spun and threw a wall up to protect us, then I followed with another wall. When both faded, the result of my other spell was a hilarious show of Drow trying to regain their footing. Some were slipping, others had their feet seemingly frozen in place.
We moved while we had the advantage. Aerona and Gertrude attacked while Ebrill worked defensive magic on us, and I joined in. If she was doing so, that likely meant more trouble, soon.
Yennifer shouted as she charged, and I turned to see why. Three more rock trolls were being led our way by a horde of goblins and orcs, several of those flying beasts above them. She didn’t wait for us. Boost spells from Ebrill hit her as she charged. By the time she connected with the first goblins, she was twice her size and glowing green, her axes trailing flames and ice.
I tried the sleeping spell on the rock trolls but with no luck. All it did was turn their attention toward me. My frost footing spell, however, was genius against the massive creatures and their heavy steps. The first time I cast it, one of them fell to take out a handful of the goblins leading it, and the second goblin caught the third and knocked it over with a swinging arm.
The two men in our group cut through the goblins and orcs with swinging attacks and quick movements that left them like a blur in the enemy ranks, and spells rained down on the enemy from the ladies behind me.
One of the rock trolls recovered and nearly caught me as it lumbered up from my right. A spell from Gertrude bounced off it. The strike tore through my ice wall and hit me in the chest, sending me flying back.
Luckily, my stats upgrades, defense boost—and maybe the fact that its attack had slowed thanks to my ice wall—kept me alive. Another strike came at me and this time I went deep within, reaching through the ground and connecting to the beast itself, for a moment taking over! Holy shit, I had just warged! It turned around and struck a flying creature like a baseball, sending it to slam into more of their allies. I wasn’t strong enough to hold the rock troll, I realized as I was kicked out and back to my spot on the ground, feeling drained.
Ebrill was at my side, pulling me up, eyes wide. “How did you do that?”
“Magic,” I said, moving my fingers like jazz hands in my semi-delirious state, feeling like I might pass out.
She laughed, pulling me with her and placing a glowing hand on my forehead. “Do it again, will you?”
A rush of energy flowed through me and this time I was the stone troll, turning on my companions and smashing the first across the jaw, then pummeling into the next and slamming it to the ground. Neither hesitated to fight back, but both had been caught off-guard by my attack and were at a disadvantage. One died after I got its head on the ground and gave it three good stomps. The other plowed into me and we rolled over goblins, squishing them as we grappled, and then he pulled both fists up, about to bring them down on my head.
“Get out!” a distant voice ordered, and I was back at Ebrill’s side, watching from a distance as the rock troll obliterated the other’s head.
My energy waned, but another touch from Ebrill and I was at least strong enough to walk.
“That was amazing,” she said, and we watched as Aerona and Gertrude hit the remaining rock troll with enough explosive magic to end the last of them. “You’re not hurt?”
I shook my head. “But you think I would’ve been if I’d stayed in there when it was killed?”
“It’s beyond my area of expertise, but better not to find out the hard way.”
“Agreed.”
A glance around the mountains showed that we had done a fair amount of damage against our pursuers. While they regrouped and tried to break past the walls we had put up, we were able to make an escape. We fell back to another path through the hills, only to see a figure with streaming light forming, blocking out all but a silhouette. I was about to attack but Ebrill placed a hand on my shoulder, her eyes focused, waiting.
“Irla!” Ebrill shouted, and the light faded as their friend Irla appeared and ran over to embrace Ebrill, then turned back to the rest of us. Her eyes showed a mixture of confusion and determination.
Seeing the look of determination in my eyes as my hand moved to cover the bulge of the Liahona where I’d stowed it, she simply nodded, then turned and joined us as we charged down that path.
91
We entered a valley next, slowing as we went. The enemy wasn’t in sight although the clouds overhead were swirling. My heart thudded. Irla and Aerona led, keeping watch, while Yenifer and Ebrill fanned out at my sides. The others were behind us. Our only injuries so far seemed to be on the soldier who had saved me, who I had since heard Gertrude refer to as Riland, and Aerona seemed to walk with a bit of a limp although it didn’t slow her down.
“Don’t let your guard down,” Gertrude said, moving behind me with cautious steps. The shadows danced across her smooth skin, light catching her armor in occasional flashes. She wasn’t the woman I knew from my time, that was for sure. I had to wonder what had changed between this time and then.
“I’ve cast a cloaking spell over us,” Ebrill explained. “It’ll take them some time to locate us but it won’t keep them off our trail for long.”
Working our way down the gravelly hillside, we passed an area where gnarled trees grew out of the hillside at an angle, likely from strong winds that were giving us a break at the moment. It reminded me of a beach we had visited on the way to my grandparents’ house when I was younger. Skipping along, playing with my cousin Sarah, my dad singing “The Sky Boat Song.” That had been a much simpler time. But, looking around at this team, at what I was part of, I wouldn’t trade it for all the peace and simplicity in the world.
“Tell me your story,” Riland said, walking closer now, his posture more relaxed now that he knew we were cloaked.
“Not much to it,” I said. “Until very recently, I didn’t even know that magic existed.”
“One of them,” Ebrill said with a chuckle.
“Excuse me?”
“No offense meant.” She gestured out to the mountains far in the distance. “Past those peaks, there’s a land of men who don’t believe. But… I take it you’re not from there, exactly.”
“My land… Isn’t discovered by our type, yet.”
That earned a confused look from Riland, but he gave a grunt. “You lear
n fast. That’s good. Stick close to this one,” he gave Ebrill a nod, “and you’ll be safe. Healing, defenses, you name it. Then there’s Yenifer—one of the best warriors alive. I say one of the best, only because she and I haven’t gone toe-to-toe yet.”
Yenifer heard this and scoffed. “Riland, you get your sword anywhere near me, I’m yanking it off for a trophy.”
“Not what I meant,” the man said, but chuckled. He gave me a wink, which I took to mean he wouldn’t mind getting his ‘sword’ near her.
“And Rianne?” I asked.
“She can take care of herself,” Ebrill replied, but glanced back the way we had come, unable to hide the worry in her eyes.
We reached the bottom of the valley and turned left, moving along where foliage above hid us from prying eyes.
“Rianne has been fighting the good fight since before many of us were born,” Yenifer explained, eyes roaming the areas above for trouble. “The day she’s gone from this world is the day I’ll truly worry for my safety. Until then, not a concern.”
“Is that why you fight so ferociously?” I asked. “Not worried about taking a killing blow?”
Yenifer chuckled. “I fight like I do because it’s what I love. What I know. It’s not the only thing I put my all into.”
This time it was her turn to wink, and I couldn’t help but notice the jealousy with which Riland eyed me after she had turned back. No time to dive into it, though, because we came to a ledge that led down to an area of red stones that bottomed out and then peaked again. Here, the clouds moved in, hovering just under the edge of the hills and giving the area an atmosphere of peaceful calm.
“The heart,” Aerona said, sharing a look of excitement with Gertrude. “This is it.”
“On me,” Gertrude called out, leading the way.
With each step closer, the area in the center became clearer, until we were close enough to see that there were rings in the stone around the heart.
