by Logan Jacobs
“Do you know what Maderel will do with the Shodra?” Murillo asked.
“It’s not my concern,” I replied.
“At worst, he’ll destroy them,” Murillo sighed. “At best, he’ll seek to tap their magic for himself.”
“And you?” I asked. “What are your plans?” So many evil people had tried to save the Shodra that their destruction sounded like a good plan to me.
“We can use the Shodra,” Murillo said. “We’ve been studying their powers, and we know how to use them without succumbing.”
“Who’s we?” I queried as I sized up the mages that stood in a loose ring around the room. I took stock of the Shadow Foxes as well, and saw that Maruk and Lavinia stood back-to-back, with Lena squeezed in between. Dehn and Aerin were a few feet away, with their backs against the wall. Aerin had dropped her pack on the floor, and I saw Merlin’s nose sticking out. Yvaine and Emeline were just behind me. Yvaine had her weapon out, and Emeline’s mana was glowing fiercely. I half expected her to explode from the force she used to keep her mana under control.
“A society of like-minded individuals,” Murillo replied. “Alas, it appears you are not a part of that group.”
Murillo suddenly threw his hand into the air, and before I could react, the room seemed to explode. Shards of glass from the picture windows rained down on us, and an acrid smell filled the air. I heard a startled yelp from Emeline, and then I fell to my knees. I felt disconnected from my body, as if I were watching what was happening to someone else. I tried to focus on Murillo, but I couldn’t see him clearly. I heard Yvaine gasp, and I thought I was about to black out.
A large black shape suddenly moved into my field of vision, and I felt a roar all the way down to my bones. The house creaked, and then the roof started to fall apart. I shook my head and focused on my mana. I pulled it into myself, feeling the power as it surged along my veins. I could see the spell that Murillo had cast now, and the invisible gas that drifted among us. It had left the Shadow Foxes weak and vulnerable, except one.
Merlin had changed into his coal black dragon persona, and he was still growing. He had punched a hole in the roof, and the air pulled the gas from the room. I realized that the other mages all work masks over their nose and mouth, except for Murillo. I saw the magic he was using to protect himself, and to control the gas. He was trying to pull it back inside, while the startled mages tried to attack Merlin.
The others were slowly recovering, and I saw Lena toss a jar into the center of the room. Nothing happened at first, and then a thousand pinpricks of light popped into existence. It wasn’t much of a diversion, and the mages ignored it. Until the pinpricks closed in on the mages, and several began swatting at their clothes and their faces. The mage closest to the jar suddenly howled in pain. His face was covered in tiny lights, and he was grabbing at it with his hands. He ran blindly from the room, only to be taken down by an arrow.
The mages were now torn between the Shadow Foxes and Merlin, but a quick command from Murillo had them reorganized. Four of the mages were slicing at Merlin, while the remaining group turned on us.
One fire mage turned on my little group, and Emeline quickly tossed her own counter-attack. It looked like a video game, with Emeline and the other fire mage sending balls of fire into each other.
“Yvaine,” I called out, “you’ve got to take down that fire mage.”
Yvaine nodded as I sent my mana into her blade, and with Emeline holding the mage’s attention, she managed to slip behind him and run him through. The mage collapsed, but not before sending out a final fireball that sent Emeline sailing across the room. Yvaine tried to go after her, but another mage stepped in front of her. I saw the mage’s mana reach her wrist, and I snatched it back before she could finish her attack. The mage gurgled and raised a hand to her chest. Yvaine wasted no time driving her foil into the mage’s throat.
Murillo had given up on his gas attack, and he was concentrating his attacks on the Foxes. I could see him using bursts of air to trip up my team, or to throw off a well-placed shot. I saw Aerin stumble as Murillo hit her with a nasty blast, and only a diving blow by Dehn saved her. Lavinia fired several arrows, but they dropped harmlessly to the ground.
Meanwhile, Merlin had pulled himself onto what was left of the roof. Three mages were throwing everything they had at him, and the puca ducked and weaved. Ali would have been proud, but I could see a few smoking wounds on the puca’s scaly haunches.
Murillo was preparing another attack, and I reached out with my fist. I closed down on his mana, but something pushed back. Murillo scowled, but he tried again, and this time a gale force wind blew through the room. I threw up a mana shield just in time, as debris rained down on everyone.
I looked more closely at Murillo and realized that there was another glow besides his mana. He was wearing something that enhanced his powers, not as powerful as the Shodra, but still enough to pose a serious threat to my team. It also made it difficult to shut down his attacks. I saw his hand go up again, and I squeezed down as hard as I could. Murillo scowled, but he still managed to send off a shockwave of air that sent Maruk tumbling into the wall.
The source of Murillo’s enhanced power was on a chain around his neck, and I realized there was only one way to end his assault. I gritted my teeth, pulled out my mana blade, and charged the mage as he prepared another attack.
He saw me coming and turned his attack towards me, but I put up a mana shield, and the collision between my mana and his enhanced power shook the house down to its foundation. Murillo was stunned, and he stumbled backwards. I leapt on top of him, driving my blade into his throat.
He gurgled as we fell to the floor. I saw recognition suddenly light his eyes as if he had just woken up, and then he was gone. I ripped his shirt open, and found what looked like a cheap, dented ring on a chain, but I could see the last bit of Murillo’s mana in it. I pulled the chain from the dead man’s chest and shoved it into my pocket.
I stood up and looked around the room. Without Murillo’s attacks, the tide of the battle tipped toward the Foxes. Lavinia’s arrows found their targets once again, and Dehn hopped around like a madman. Aerin had used Dehn’s crazed attacks as a shield to cover her movements, and she now sat by Emeline.
I saw Aerin’s golden mana flow into the fire mage, and Emeline drew in a deep breath. Yvaine stood over the two of them and dispatched one mage who drifted too close to her sword while trying to escape from Dehn.
Maruk was back on his feet, and he used his shields to knock down the two mages who were still attacking Merlin. Lena tossed another jar between them, and a sickly brown gas filled the air. The mages began screaming and swatting at the air, and then dove through the window frames and into the wilderness beyond.
“They’ll be having nightmares for a while,” Lena said as she watched the mages disappear over the side of the mountain.
I looked around and realized that there were no other mages to battle. Dehn still stabbed at the corpses, and Lavinia began to retrieve her arrows. Emeline was back on her feet, so Aerin snooped around the room. Merlin returned to his puca shape and scampered back inside. He went straight to Aerin and whimpered pitifully. Aerin cooed over him and then placed a hand over the worst of his injuries. I could see the puca was already healing well on his own, but he liked the attention.
“Let’s look around,” I said. “See if we can find anything that will tell us more about this society.”
I wandered off down a long hallway, opening doors as I went. I counted three bedrooms, two sitting rooms, a game room, and two other rooms I couldn’t quite identify, and that was just in the area I wandered through.
Towards the end of the hall, I found Murillo’s library. Most of the books were the same ones that filled the shelves at the Tower, but I found a pair of books with matching blue leather covers that Murillo had hidden in a locked drawer in the desk. I flipped through quickly, and saw several descriptions of various magical artifacts, and even a section on t
he Shodra. I wrapped the books with a piece of cloth I cut from the curtains and dropped them into my pack.
As I stepped back into the hallway, I heard someone knock on the door. I realized that the door knocker must have had some sort of enhancement spell in order for the sound to carry all the way back here. I walked slowly back towards the front door, and the knock came again.
“Psst,” Aerin called as she stuck her head out from one of the rooms she’d been rummaging through, “Did we lock the front door?”
“I don’t think so,” I replied.
“Drat,” Aerin replied. I continued towards the door, and Aerin fell into step behind me. There was a third knock on the door as we arrived in the front hall. Lavinia was there, a scowl on her fine features, as was Maruk, who eyed the door as if he expected it to come to life and attack him.
“What do we do?” Aerin asked.
Another knock on the door.
“Tell them no one’s home,” Lavinia suggested.
“But then they’ll know we’re here,” Aerin pointed out.
“There is smoke coming up from the roof,” Maruk pointed out. “Perhaps they’re just concerned neighbors, coming to check.”
“There are no neighbors,” Lavinia replied.
“You don’t know that,” Maruk sniffed. “A place like this with such magnificent views and fine culture, I’m sure there are plenty of wealthy family homes nearby.”
Yet another knock. I glanced at the others and then stepped forward. I yanked the door open, prepared to tell whoever was there that now was not a good time. The words died on my tongue as I stood toe to toe with Maderel.
“Gabriel,” Maderel said. “It seems you’ve arrived before we did.”
“Um, yes,” I replied.
“We only discovered that Murillo had slipped out of the city several days ago, or else we would have been here sooner,” he said as he took in our appearance. “But it seems you didn’t need our help.”
I looked behind him and realized that a score of mages were standing there.
“You knew he wanted to meet us here?” I asked.
“Well, we suspected,” Maderel replied. “Perhaps we could discuss this inside?”
I stepped back, and Maderel walked into what was left of the house. He glanced around and then walked towards the room where we had killed Murillo and his allies. Maderel took in the scene and then looked at us. I felt something cold sliver up my spine, but I kept my face impassive.
“We’ve suspected for a while that Murillo was planning his own attempt to recover the Shodra,” Maderel said as he looked down at Murillo’s body. “When the Academy decided that there was finally a guild that might be able to accomplish that feat, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to test Murillo. I gather he tried to keep the Shodra for himself.”
“He said he’d been studying them,” I replied. “He claimed he knew how to use them.”
“Quite a few mages have made that claim,” Maderel said. “None have been right.”
“So,” Aerin drawled when no one spoke for several heartbeats. “We completed the bounty.”
“Excellent,” Maderel said as he looked up from his study of Murillo’s corpse. “May I see them?”
I opened my pack and pulled out the candle, the knife, and the chalice. Maderel took them from my hands and examined each item closely. He then placed them inside a velvet bag held by one of the other mages. That done, he turned to me expectantly.
I slowly pulled the chain over my head and handed the gemstone to Maderel. I felt an odd sense of diminishment as the stone left my possession. Maderel’s face, on the other hand, lit up as he grasped the chain. He spent a long time examining the stone before he finally placed it in the bag.
Another mage stepped forward with a plain cotton sack. He held the bag out towards me, and I took it. I opened it to look inside and saw the glitter of gold coins. Aerin slipped the bag from my grasp and weighed it in her hand. After a moment, she nodded. She smiled at the mages and then bounced from the room.
“It would seem our business is concluded,” Maderel said. “Another excellent job, Shadow Foxes.”
Maderel strode back through the wreckage, his posse in hot pursuit. I heard him tell one of the other mages to call in the clean-up crew, and then everything was quiet again, except for the occasional sound of falling debris.
“So, that’s it?” Lavinia asked. “That seems…”
“Anticlimactic,” Maruk supplied.
“I guess we should leave,” I suggested.
“I’ll meet you out front,” Maruk replied as he made a beeline towards the front door.
“Shall we round up the rest of the crew?” I invited Lavinia.
She nodded, and with a quick head tilt, led the way.
We found Yvaine and Dehn in the kitchen which was still in one piece. Dehn had found a large supply of beer and was in the process of filling his pack. Yvaine was seated on a stool near the counter, sipping wine and paging through a book on topiaries. I noticed a few bottles had been added to her pack.
Emeline and Lena had located a small lab. Most of the glass in this room had shattered, and I was convinced that Lena and Emeline would somehow manage to give themselves some serious cuts, but the two made it out relatively unscathed. Lena grinned and held up six bottles that she carefully tucked into her bag. Emeline barely acknowledged us as she tripped by. She had found Murillo’s lab notes, and while they were different elementals, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to know what your opponent was doing.
Aerin and Merlin were curled up in an oversized chair, cooing at each other. Both had found a few shiny trinkets which they were passing back and forth.
Lavinia watched them for a moment, then shook her head.
“You’re turning into a puca,” she announced as she watched the pair.
“I think it might be fun to be a puca,” Aerin replied.
Merlin chirruped his agreement.
“We should leave,” I cut in. “Emeline says there’s a town near here where we can stay for the night.”
“Good,” Aerin said as she stood up and stretched. “I wasn’t looking forward to a night on the ground.”
“We’re getting soft,” Lavinia growled. “Time was when we would be happy to sleep on the ground because it meant we had a bounty.”
“True,” Aerin admitted. “But I think we have just enough left from the bounty to pay for rooms for tonight. We may have to sleep rough tomorrow night if we don’t make it back to the balloons.”
“Wait,” I said. “We had five hundred gold pieces for that bounty.”
“Yes, but we have all those additions to the guild hall to pay for,” Aerin replied as she strolled ahead of us. “Not to mention the uniforms that Maruk wants to get. And Dehn put in a request for new armor. Lena needs laboratory supplies. Oh, and you want to buy an apple orchard.”
“I do not,” I protested as Lavinia looked at me in surprise. “I was just joking about that.”
“I don’t know,” Aerin said in a singsong voice. “It sounded like a good idea to me.”
“I do like apples,” Lavinia said quietly as she squeezed my hand.
I looked over at her, since she normally wasn’t one to hold hands. She’d been acting a bit weird with me this entire trip, but she just gave me a mischievous smile in response.
By the time the four of us made it back outside, the rest of the Foxes were already there. I noticed that all the packs were beyond full. And then there was Maruk, who held a large object wrapped in what looked like a velvet drape over his shoulder.
“Oh, no you didn’t,” Aerin said as she looked around. “You’re taking that hideous statue with us?”
“It’s a Pirelli,” Maruk replied defensively.
“I hope you plan on keeping that thing in your room,” Aerin complained.
“Actually,” Maruk said, “I thought it would look quite nice out back. We could build a very nice space for it. A few topiaries, perhaps a fountain. Oh, and some
fresh herbs, of course. Not only will they smell nice in the garden, but they’ll come in handy in the kitchen.”
“Now wait a minute,” Lavinia protested. “We’re supposed to be putting a range in the backyard.”
“I thought that was going in the basement,” Lena replied.
“No, no, no,” Dehn sighed. “We’ll be adding more practice space there.”
“I like the idea of the Pirelli in the backyard,” Yvaine said thoughtfully. “And I know just the person to design a space for it. Perhaps something in a grotto.”
“Oooh,” Maruk replied. “And a waterfall. Definitely a waterfall.”
“Not in the middle of my range,” Lavinia protested.
“As long as that statue doesn’t end up inside where I can see it,” Aerin grumbled.
“Emeline,” I called out.
The panthera looked up from her perusal of Murillo’s notes. She blushed and quickly tucked the notebook into her pack, like a schoolgirl caught reading something she wasn’t supposed to be reading.
“You said there was a place for us to stay tonight,” I hinted.
“Oh, yes,” she replied. “If we head back down the mountain road, when we reach the main road through the valley, we should head north about another mile. There’s a town called Thwill.”
“Sounds good,” I said and then set off. I could hear the rest of the Shadow Foxes following me. Truthfully, it would have been hard not to hear them. Aside from the ongoing friendly bickering over the statue, there was a lot of clinking and clanking from whatever was being carried in the packs. Not to mention the five hundred gold pieces from Maderel.
The distance to Thwill was probably closer to two miles, but we made it just before the clouds finally opened up. We found a cozy inn called Rena’s Revenge, which another guild had just left, so there was plenty of room for us.
Rena the landlord was a cheerful woman, who was more than happy to have her rooms filled by a respectable guild. She had a roaring fire going in the main room, and she made sure that we had plenty of food and drink as the rain poured down outside. I was ensconced in a comfy armchair, a smile on my face while I watched my team celebrate their win.
