by B. T. Narro
KRenn didn’t have the strength to ride, so he certainly didn’t have the strength to fight, but he would die trying to kill as many of these bastard cavaliers as he could.
Leo would not let him fight alone.
◆◆◆
“What are you doing?” KRenn yelled. At least he didn’t fall over this time as he screamed at Leo. Adrenaline was probably the only thing keeping him up. Hopefully it would last long enough for Leo to finish this fight.
“You said it wasn’t my time yet. That’s true. And it’s not your time yet, either. I’m going to make sure of it.”
There were a good twenty to thirty riders charging across the land as if fearful Leo and KRenn would run at any moment.
“You can still make it,” KRenn urged. “Go, Leo. Live to destroy the rift.”
“I’m staying here.”
“A stalwart link was made between you and your brother! It is not by chance that you have come all this way. Don’t throw away your life for me. I will perish soon enough anyway.”
“If you believe in fate as you seem to, then you will accept that I came back for a reason. Help me destroy them, KRenn. It’s the only way I can make it back to the palace safely.”
Leo stopped watching the charging cavaliers for a glance at the mage’s expression. His features drooped with sickness, black rings under his eyes. But with his next breath, he stood tall and drew his sword.
“I cannot do much.”
“I can,” Leo said. So long as a mage isn’t with them.
The cavaliers slowed as they came close. The lead man was very familiar, unfortunately.
“Leo Litxer, at last. I said I would find out the truth about you when you came into my city as a poor boy on a wagon.”
“I remember, Aaron Elm.”
Aaron had stopped their wagon as Leo had come into the capital with Andar, Edward, and a girl whose name he could not remember. Aaron had scared all of them when he revealed himself as the director of city perseverance, a glorified title for a rebel catcher. Leo had heard of many people who had been arrested because of him in the years that followed, far too many for them all to be rebels.
“I knew one day you might be an enemy to the throne,” Aaron said. “Don’t try to deny that you would’ve joined your father in battle against us if Mavrim didn’t save all of you.”
“I deny nothing.”
“I figured. But now Mavrim can’t protect you any longer.” Aaron pointed his sword at KRenn. “You expect him to save you now?”
Leo ignored his question. “You can’t actually believe you’re protecting the throne anymore. You’ve come all the way here to murder two people who desire nothing but to destroy the rift. What is your true intention?”
“You, your father, and his rebels will come after the throne when the rift is destroyed. We couldn’t kill your father, so we must ensure the rift is not destroyed. It is to protect the throne and leave it in the capable hands of Gavval.”
Did this mean Mavrim had been killed, then?
“The rift will expand and destroy humankind as well,” Leo said.
“All of us will be gone a long while before we have to worry about that.”
“Your children—”
“Do not exist.”
“What about the rest of you?” Leo asked. “Aren’t some of you decent enough to care about the future of Aathon?”
These men were all much older than Leo. Most appeared to be in their thirties and forties. Among the few that were younger, Leo did see some looks of empathy aimed at him. He memorized their faces, for perhaps they could be swayed
“All of us will be rich when Jarrel takes the gold of Dasfis,” Aaron said. “Rich men don’t worry about anything.” He dismounted.
The rest of his men followed and began to surround Leo.
“If you give up now,” Aaron said, “your death will be painless. I’ll chop off your head in one clean strike.” He gestured through the air. “I’ve gotten quite good at taking the heads of rebels. You shouldn’t feel anything.”
Bowmen began to draw their arrows.
Aaron pointed at them as he glared at Leo. “You have no chance at winning. You might as—”
Leo linked every soldier together by their limbs, stopping them all in place.
Aaron made a sound of shock before a look of annoyance crossed his face. “You can’t hold that for long, mage.”
It was true. The twenty-way link was as complicated as Leo could ever make. It was only because Aaron had run his mouth for so damn long that Leo could set up Artistry in the necessary way by looping it around the arms of every man here. The Artistry hated to be used in this way, trying to break free of Leo’s force even stronger than the muscles under the skin of everyone here. Everyone but KRenn.
“Kill him,” Leo uttered to the mage.
KRenn trudged toward Aaron. The commanding officer struggled in hopes of freeing himself. He remained stuck in Leo’s spell, but two others managed to break free. One rushed KRenn. The other came at Leo.
He couldn’t hope to defend KRenn, as most of his attention went into maintaining the link. He had to rely only on his training, his instinct, to defend himself as he swung hard to meet his incoming opponent. He knew his attack would be blocked, but Leo had hoped to at least surprise the older man. Leo had been the youngest in their training program, even across all forty months as new recruits joined. His youthful face hid the strength of his upper body even better than his shirt did.
As Leo slammed his blade down, the older man did not drop his weapon as Leo had hoped. Instead, the man blocked it and attacked back with a faster riposte than any of Leo’s fellow students had ever shown, all except Andar. It was because of Leo’s brother that Leo managed to duck the wicked stab at his neck, reminding Leo just how infamously skilled these cavaliers were at slaying rebels to the throne.
In his moment of panic, Leo lost control of more pieces to his link. A bowman was freed, now aiming at Leo with bloodlust in his eyes. Leo let go of the links to focus purely on wrapping the bow and string to the next nearest thing, a large rock at the archer’s feet.
The bowman let loose, but his heavier than normal bow bent downward as he shot. The force from the bowstring made both rock and bow tumble through the air and splash into the lake. Leo had only a moment to see KRenn stopping only one attacker with a link as two more came from behind KRenn.
Leo linked their legs, causing both to trip. Movement to the side told Leo another archer had his arrow ready. Leo took sight of the last of the three bowmen and linked their bows to their arrows. As soon as the first one shot, each bow flew out of their hands with the arrows firing wildly.
The two behind KRenn had begun to rise, but the mage stopped them with a link of his own. Leo could feel the Artistry around them and didn’t bother to check what KRenn had linked exactly. About a dozen swordsmen approached Leo. The one who’d already countered Leo’s attack was circling. He seemed to be trying to get behind Leo.
Leo motioned that he would strike all who came close but did not actually swing. It would be the death of him. He took what might be his last free moment before he was swarmed and linked all the metal of his enemies’ weapons.
He’d practiced such links many times. It was not easy, but it was something that even now he managed to do with confidence. So much confidence in fact, that he already planned his next move as their swords fell. Each one was as heavy as all of them combined. There was no way a man could lift one.
Leo charged the commanding officer, a bit surprised that Aaron didn’t run.
“Now!” Aaron called as Leo was a few steps away. The officer bent down and picked up his weapon as Leo felt a mage break the links between the weapons.
Leo cursed inwardly as he skidded to a stop, barely avoiding a slash that would’ve opened his stomach. Leo looked around as he backed away, desperate to find the mage.
“On the horse,” Leo called out to KRenn as he noticed a younger man aiming his hand in Leo
’s direction. Leo felt Artistry swirling around his legs, the start of a link, but Leo dispersed the clear energy in a breath.
Leo sprinted at the mage knowing that Aaron and others would close in behind him as soon as he slowed. The horse started to move away from Leo, but a quick link caused the animal to fall over. The mage rose up with a confident sneer as he started to wrap Artistry around Leo for a link. Leo dispersed the energy again with a wave of his hand.
The mage didn’t seem to be scared as Leo came at him with a thrust, but this time Leo would not overestimate his own strength. He feinted the attack, morphing it into a slash at the older mage’s head.
Leo felt his blade connect with a strange piercing sensation that he didn’t have time to focus on as he spun around and deflected Aaron’s attack, and then two more.
A quick look over his shoulder showed the mage falling as he gripped his bloody neck. Leo didn’t have to worry about him, stepping backward over the mage as he fended off a few more attacks.
It felt as if Leo was battling wild beasts as these bloodthirsty brutes tried to overwhelm him with quick thrusts and tight swings. Leo had practiced defending himself against his brother, who was very quick while wielding double training swords. Leo’s defenses held true, though he had no time for a counterattack. Instead, he moved a cluster of Artistry around the legs of his attackers.
It was easy to form the link once the Artistry was in place. It just involved looping invisible streams of the energy around their legs like ropes. With them being nearly on top of each other, and the enemy mage bleeding out, Leo knew they would have no chance of breaking this link.
Aaron teetered as the two lost their balance and leaned forward. “Don’t move!” Aaron told them. “He’s got our legs.”
Surprisingly, they all stayed up. They must’ve trained against mages, all holding their weapons up for defense as Leo prepared to knock them all over with one devastating blow to Aaron.
“Behind you!” KRenn yelled in a panic.
Leo spun, clashing weapons with a man trying to stab him in the back. Leo linked the man’s weapon to two others as more attackers surrounded him. All the swords fell. Leo was about to stab one unarmed man when another tackled him.
Leo did not drop his weapon as he found himself beneath a soldier. He did not let his links fail, either. But he didn’t have the focus to create a third link to stop this man from striking Leo in the face.
A sharp pain shot across his forehead as the world blurred for a moment. Leo saw another swing coming, but he got his sword up to stab the man in his arm. The man screamed as he rolled off, but Leo suddenly realized that the blow to his head had made him drop his links.
Someone was about to stab Leo as he got up, forcing him to fall backward again to avoid it. He rolled and swiped at two attackers closing in. Then he spun and swung at three more coming in behind him, who jumped back to avoid his blade.
There are too damn many!
He started to gather Artistry in a wide circle around him, prepared to link everyone together. He swiped wildly to buy himself time, fending off a half dozen men.
Aaron charged at him just as Leo nearly had his link ready. Leo kicked Aaron’s thrusting arm, knocking his weapon off target. But Aaron dropped it as he collided with Leo and rammed him backward.
Leo feared a blade was about to be driven through his back, but he must’ve slammed into the attacker before the man could get his weapon up. Aaron was trying to grab Leo around his throat as Leo linked all the steel together. He heard swords drop again with a satisfying sound, but his air was constricted as Aaron got his hands around Leo’s neck.
Panic seized Leo. He struggled unsuccessfully to get Aaron’s hands off his neck. Someone else was grabbing Leo’s arms. He made sure to maintain the link of the blades, but he had accidentally linked his own in the process, his sword now laying by his feet.
Aaron was pressed up against Leo, too close for Leo to kick him. He linked Aaron’s hands with everyone else’s with a quick and wide loop of Artistry.
“No one move anything!” Aaron commanded. “I’ll kill him no matter what he links.”
But Leo continued to weave the links of Artistry around every pair of hands he could see. He felt the link spread to about a dozen pairs of hands. No one should be able to move a finger without everyone making the same movement, but all this was doing, Leo soon realized, was making it even harder to get out of Aaron’s tight grip around Leo’s neck.
His throat burned for relief as the corners of his vision started to fade. Links would not save him here. His sword was not reachable. Three or four arms held him still. He needed KRenn, but he saw that the master mage had fallen. He was either dead or unconscious.
Someone had to help Leo, or he would die. The soldiers looked at Leo’s suffocation with indifference. They had killed many others as innocent as Leo. They didn’t care.
Leo’s mind raced for ideas. The Taesitry surrounding KRenn. With desperation fueling him, he found his mind taking a good hold on the Taesitry. He pulled it out of the barrier, or sleeve, or wherever it had been trapped. Feeling the cluster of volatile energy now free, he moved a dense cloud of Artistry into it.
There was a burst of light as the air clapped then whirled around them. A dozen rifts opened in the gaps between the confused expressions of the soldiers watching. The rifts pulled the soldiers toward them, but none of the portals was large enough to actually transport these men anywhere. Instead, the rifts collapsed as the soldiers whipped through them. These rifts then exploded and created even more rifts that tossed around the soldiers who had not fallen down yet.
Many bumped into Aaron and Leo, creating enough distance for Leo to try to kick Aaron. But the collapsing rifts had a result that Leo had momentarily forgotten about. Potent Artistry exploded out of them, linking everything—everything—together. Leo’s leg was not only linked to other legs. It was linked to anything that even resembled a leg, like the sticks on the ground or the long rocks by the lake. The result of everything being linked was a whirlwind of dust, sticks, rocks, and flailing men as the rifts continued to explode with more Artistry.
Leo fell away from Aaron. He tried to gasp for air, but even his lungs were linked to something. He inhaled and exhaled rapidly without control.
He didn’t have the strength to stop the chaotic links from thrashing him along the ground as he tried to get the air he needed to recover. He witnessed Aaron trying to stand and falling over many times, but eventually Aaron got to his feet as the last of the rifts collapsed.
Leo rushed at Aaron, picking up a sword along the way. He didn’t bother linking anything, for the man did not have a weapon and everyone else was still finding their bearings.
Aaron held up his hands as he made a face of shock. Leo stabbed in between them, burying his sword in Aaron’s chest. He pulled it out as Aaron teetered.
“We don’t rebel against the throne,” Leo told the dying man. “We rebel against injustice. And that’s you.”
Leo thrust his blade into the man’s chest, deeper this time, then yanked it out.
Aaron collapsed. His limbs went supple as he breathed his last breath. Leo held his blade up at the three approaching men.
“I will freeze all of you in place,” he warned, “then I’ll kill you one by one.”
The men glanced at each other nervously. Leo checked behind him to see no one approaching.
“Leave!” Leo yelled as he weaved Artistry around all their weapons. The blades fell with deep thuds.
A few of the men looked at their weapons longingly, glancing up at Leo to see if they might get away with bringing their swords with them.
“Your weapons are mine now,” Leo told them. “Go.”
No one moved. An archer started to load an arrow, but Leo lazily waved his hand in the bowman’s direction, linking it to a nearby rock. The bow fell as the rock rolled.
Leo started walking toward the nearest group of men. All hurried to their horses and rode out of
there.
Finally, Leo was alone with three bodies: the enemy mage, Aaron, and KRenn. Leo hurried to reform the protective cocoon of Artistry around himself and KRenn as he ran to the mage.
He checked KRenn for injury, finding none. He had probably just fought past his limit.
Leo stood up as he noticed something strange among his fleeing enemies. He got his spyglass out of his bag to see that one seemed to have fallen off his horse. A few others had come to the man’s aid, but he must’ve hurt himself because he appeared too weak to get back on his horse. They tried to lift him up, but he could barely move. The men left him on his own as they got back on their mounts.
This weak man was on his hands and knees. Slowly he sank to the ground, where Leo lost view of him.
KRenn sat up with a gasp. He looked around frantically.
“They’re gone,” Leo said to alleviate the mage’s obvious worry.
KRenn smiled. “Well done, Leo!”
“Are you all right?” He actually looked better than before, the circles gone from under his eyes, some color returning to his skin.
“For now, yes.” KRenn got up and reached for the spyglass. “May I?”
Leo handed it over, curious as to what KRenn was looking for.
“One horse has no rider. Did the man fall off?”
“Yes. Did you have something to do with that?”
“I did. It’s the same reason I’m better, at least for a short time.”
Leo didn’t understand. What could KRenn have done besides somehow steal the man’s health with a link…but such a thing was not possible.
Leo stared at him with worry. “What did you do during the battle?”
KRenn seemed amused as he looked around at the bloodstained dirt, focusing on the two bodies nearby. “I should be asking you the same thing.” KRenn walked off to gather their horses and started leading them away from the lake.
“You tell me first,” Leo said, following him while unsure what he was doing.
“I made a link of transmission, a t-link. I wouldn’t have used it on anyone but a man attempting to take my life, for I surely sickened the man’s healthy body with my own illness.”
