War Mage

by Logan Knight

  I cast another arrow and drilled a guard right between his eyes. Only the fletching was visible, but when the man pitched forward and landed on an exposed stone, that disappeared as well.

  The last two guards glanced at each other. Their expressions made it clear they were unsure if they wanted to proceed with what looked like a suicidal charge, so I attacked them instead.

  I closed the two yards, feigned high, and dodged out of the way as the second made a wild stab at my guts.

  The first guard drew his sword back for a swing that looked like it was meant to cleave me in two. I was faster, though, and stabbed his hand before his blade got anywhere near me. His weapon clattered to the ground behind me as the man cried out in pain.

  The second guard began chopping his sword at my left, then right, then left, repeating the pattern over and over. I was being walked back again, and reinforcements would be closing in. The man was sticking to the plan.

  When I blocked one strike, the guard twisted his wrist, attempting to cut my hand as I’d done to his partner. I lifted my blade in time to block his stab and took another step back.

  When I did, I found his partner’s sword under my foot and had a new idea. I jabbed high, which he easily blocked. I jabbed low, which he blocked again. Then I threw my sword at him. He dodged to one side, but it still grazed the side of his face and made him stagger back a step.

  I picked up his partner’s sword from the ground and removed both of the men’s heads in two quick slashes.

  When I turned to check on Alena, I found her fighting three opponents of her own. She was fast and looked like she’d completely recovered from her arrow wound. Her bag sat open on the forest floor with half its contents spread across the ground nearby. I recognized one of the vials containing the potion which would restore my magic and fired an arrow into one of the guards as I ran past the bag and snatched the elixir from the ground.

  The guard I’d shot dropped his sword and put both hands over his mouth. It looked like I’d managed to fire an arrow into one of his cheeks and out the other, probably taking a few of his teeth with it.

  I turned my attention to the other two and chose the one on the right. He looked like he was ready. The other man was watching another bleed, a look of disgust and horror on his face.

  I feigned high and sliced low, but he was better than the others. He blocked my strike and retaliated with a solid punch to my head on my temple.

  The blow staggered me and caused the world to go out of focus for a second. I lifted my hands as though I were in terror and spoke another magic word. When he brought his sword down, fierce murder in his eyes, I closed mine. All I had to do was wait to feel powder on my nose. When I did, I picked up my blade and buried it deep into his calf. I felt bones break underneath, and his foot came almost completely off.

  He looked stunned as he fell, confused by the way his sword disintegrated in his hand. My next slash removed his head.

  Alena roared and hacked her blade against her opponent’s. She wailed on him, driving him down an inch with each ferocious strike. He looked like he wanted to retaliate, but the woman’s savagery was too much for him to handle.

  I slipped around to his right flank and stabbed him in his armpit. Alena’s next swing dented his helmet several inches deep, killing him.

  There were no other guards nearby, but plenty were approaching.

  “Let’s go,” I said to Alena. “We have an opening. We have to move now!”

  “My pack!” she said, before sprinting to where she’d left it.

  I wanted to protest, but I knew she had her potion cookbook in there. It was far too valuable to leave behind.

  I followed her, watching the rest of the guards close in on us. She shoved the contents she’d spilled back inside, quickly closed the top, and threw it on her back. When she stood, however, our gap had closed. New torches appeared from deeper in the woods. It looked like an ambush had been set up, but the guards had changed their mind. Instead, they decided to join the others. We were surrounded again.

  “Looks like we need to create a new gap,” I said as I pulled the cork from my vial of blue liquid and swallowed it down in a single gulp.

  My vision cleared a couple of seconds later, and I was ready for more fighting.

  “You think you’re a mage?” one of the guards asked. “Is that why you keep fighting? Sure, you can do a couple of spells, but do you really think you can win? Which god do you serve? Whichever it is, it can’t be that powerful, because you’re about to die.”

  I marched forward, Alena at my side, both of our swords ready as I thought about his answer. My guess was the priest at the prison was a mage. His power was why he’d been given his authority. It might also have been how his soldiers knew where we were, so killing him might solve my problem.

  “I am a mage,” I said. “And tonight, you will meet my god personally.”

  5

  We were doing our best to avoid the prison guards who were pursuing us, but we weren’t making much progress. Though we’d killed many of them, there always seemed to be more. We fought through one group, only to end up surrounded. When we broke through their lines, they surrounded us again. Now we were being taunted by someone who must’ve thought angering me was a good idea.

  The man who’d been taunting us stepped forward out of the shadows between the trees.

  “Is that so?” he asked. He resembled the other prison guards, but his armor was different. Painted on his breastplate in crimson was the rank insignia of a Xorian captain.

  I’d expected the priest to be leading his men, but it appeared I had finally met the true commander of the troops. It was likely, then, that the priest was the warden of the prison. It had to be a political or religious position outside the military. It was also likely he wasn’t even a soldier. It would make killing him easier if I ever got the opportunity.

  “We have to get through their lines,” I whispered from the corner of my mouth. “Otherwise, the rest will close in on us, and we won’t stand a chance. Do what you have to, but get through, even if that means leaving me behind.”

  “I’m not going anywhere without you,” Alena whispered back. The force of her words made it clear she was not interested in discussing it anymore.

  The captain gave me a contemptuous stare and opened his mouth, probably to continue taunting me. I never found out what he was going to say, though, because as soon as he inhaled, I charged forward, catching him and his nearby soldiers completely unprepared.

  Most of the guards, including the captain, began backpedaling fast, raising their swords into panicked, ineffective defense. I stabbed the first one in the throat. The second, I kicked in the knee, hearing a snap as the man’s joint bent the wrong way. He fell forward on the twisted limb, screaming as his fall caused further injury.

  The third caught my blade with his forearm when he panicked. The guard dropped his weapon and cradled his limb against his chest in a vain attempt to protect it from further injury. He didn’t even try to get away or duck when he saw my sword heading for his neck.

  The captain raised his weapon but looked like he’d changed his mind about attacking. His nearby troops were dead, and for a moment, he was alone. He began running backward but tripped over the root of a nearby tree and started windmilling his arms in an attempt to stay upright. The captain landed on the ground so hard I heard the air leave his lungs in a huff.

  I raised my hand, ready to send an arrow into his throat, but changed my mind when I heard the crunch of a boot against a dry branch behind me. Alena was to my right.

  Instead of firing the arrow at the captain, I sent it behind me and heard a man cry out. He dropped his sword and wheezed as his fingers probed the two inches of arrow sticking out of his armor. It had been a direct hit, and there was no way he’d recover. I finished him off before returning my attention to the commander.

  The captain scrambled to his feet and retreated a few yards while the rest of the nearby guards closed in.
“Don’t kill them!” he ordered. “The priest wants them alive. If you kill them, he will sacrifice you in their place!”

  The man’s words seemed to have a chilling effect on the rest of the guards. They slowed their attack and glanced at their fellows, conveying their uncertainty of what they should do next. Each man, it appeared, had to weigh the few options he had before him. The captain had managed to demoralize his troops and ruin their attack. It was the mark of a poor leader. I couldn’t have been happier.

  Two guards approached, then side-stepped together, placing themselves between their captain and me. They gripped their swords nervously, and each kept glancing at the weapons Alena and I were carrying.

  “Yes,” I said, “these swords look just like yours. In fact, they’re exactly like yours. We took them from a couple of guards who looked far more experienced than you two. Are you sure you want to do this?” They were already rocked back onto their heels by their captain, so all they needed was a little push. I heard one of them swallow in response.

  We faced seven opponents, and more were on the way. The guards in front of us had formed a defensive line, but it was on the wrong side. Instead of preventing us from escaping, they were protecting their ill-tempered captain. We had slipped past them during the fight.

  Alena and I began backing into the woods, leaving their defensive circle behind. I took a moment to study where the rest of the guards were, based on the light of their torches.

  As we continued backing away, those at the far end of the circle began to run toward us. At the same time, several of the guards on either side of those protecting the captain dropped their torches and ran into the woods.

  I knew what they were planning. By dropping their torches, the guards knew they would eliminate our ability to see where they were. They could still see us, though, because of the torches held by the guards closest to us.

  Those who’d disappeared into the woods would set up an ambush and pounce on us as soon as we got close. They had orders not to kill us, but there was a lot they could do, which wouldn’t result in our deaths.

  “It’s time to go,” I whispered to Alena.

  “On three?” she whispered back.

  “One,” I said.

  “Two,” she said.

  Instead of saying three, we turned and ran headlong into the woods. I followed Alena as she led me through bushes, around huge trees, and across small streams and ravines. We weren’t weighed down by armor, only our packs. The further we ran, the greater the distance we created between us and our pursuers.

  “After them!” one of them shouted.

  “I give the orders!” the captain roared. “After them!”

  Without torches of our own, Alena and I had to rely on our night vision. It meant we occasionally ran through the middle of briars and smacked our faces on low branches. It also meant we encountered creatures which, under any other circumstance, would likely have tried to eat us.

  One was a bear that looked to be twelve feet tall when it stood. It lifted its paws, which were as big as my head, and inhaled as it prepared to roar, but then it froze. The sight of thirty or more guards, each carrying burning torches, must’ve been more than the animal could stand. It dropped back to its feet, turned, and crashed through the trees and bushes as fast as it could move.

  I never saw the next animal directly. As we ran, I ducked beneath a thin vine, but was surprised when it dropped lower at the last second, wrapped around my arms, and held me firm.

  “No!” Alena shrieked as I was slowly pulled off the ground. She grabbed my legs and held on.

  My sword was still in my hand, though, so I quickly cut through the tough vine and dropped to the ground.

  “What was that?” I asked as we ran.

  “A huntsman,” she said, breathing hard. “They live in trees. Drop webs. Snare things. Then eat them.”

  After that encounter, I did my best to keep my eyes open and a tight grip on my sword. When it was all over—when we’d escaped and there was time to relax—I planned on asking Alena about what else I should be on the lookout for. It seemed everything in the land of Xoria wanted to kill, even the land itself, which gave me an idea.

  “Are there cliffs nearby?” I asked.

  “Cliffs?” she asked as we vaulted a tangle of small, hooked bushes. “What for?”

  I covered my face as we ran straight through another tall patch of briars. The scratches felt like I’d been hit with a fiery whip, but I’d protected my face. “Yes or no?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she panted, “not too far. They aren’t very deep though.”

  “Take us there,” I said.

  The troops were still behind us. Their captain was still shouting orders at them, urging them forward, but they all looked like they were tiring. The noise of so many armored boots and bodies crashing through the forest added a measure of chaos to an already confusing situation. I had no idea where my companion was leading us, but I trusted her and did my best not to get in her way.

  “Almost there,” she said. “Get your spell ready or get ready to get caught.”

  I wrapped my arm around her waist, and she put hers over my shoulders. I said “Pluma Prodin”, and we jumped together.

  The cliff was actually a ravine, and she was right, it was only about fifteen feet deep. It was about ten feet wide, though, which was too far for most of the soldiers to cross with a leap. When we jumped, the effect of my spell—our slower fall—meant we easily crossed to the other side.

  Several dull thumps and cries of pain told me the guards had tried it as well. Some of them hadn’t made it. I hoped it would be a while before they were able to rejoin the pursuit—if ever.

  “Another,” Alena said. It almost caught me by surprise, but I cast the spell again, and we jumped across without much trouble. When I looked back, about half the thirty remaining guards were climbing down into the ravine while the other half opted to go around. I couldn’t see either end of the crevasse, which meant we’d gained some valuable distance from many of them.

  “Are there more?” I asked.

  “About a dozen,” she said.

  I couldn’t cast my spell a dozen more times. The last one hadn’t made me feel ill, but it was close. I didn’t want to become so weak I couldn’t help. If that happened, she’d be fighting alone, and I wouldn’t be able to defend myself.

  “I’ve only got one more left in me,” I said, “so let’s make it count.”

  We continued to run, and soon I could only see a few of our enemies chasing after us. The life of a sedentary prison guard, it seemed, had made them soft. I was glad for it.

  When we couldn’t run anymore, we walked, one foot dragging in front of the other. There were still at least five guards on our tail, but they were definitely in worse shape than either of us. The only thing that could have kept them moving was the threat of their captain. None of them wanted to become a sacrifice, and I didn’t blame them.

  The last ravine was too deep to see the bottom. Trees grew on either side, and though it was only about thirty feet across, I couldn't see where it ended in either direction.

  I checked over my shoulder and spotted our pursuers far in the distance—at least a mile away. The night sky had turned from completely black to a dull kind of orange. Daylight wasn’t far away. All we needed to do was get across. By the time they were able to follow or go all the way around, we’d be long gone.

  “You don’t want to end up at the bottom of this one,” Alena warned as she wiped sweat from her eyes with her forearm. “There are some nasty bug-things down there. They’re huge. They eat people. I can’t remember what they’re called, but it even sounds scary. It’s one of those things.”

  “We need to get across,” I said, looking for something to land on if we couldn’t jump far enough using my spell. As far as I could see—in both directions—there wasn’t anything we could aim for once we jumped. No outcroppings, no shelves, not even a rock we could both get our feet on if we didn’t make
it across. There were, however, roots from a huge tree that had grown through the side of the ravine. They were thick, several feet long, and twisted and knotted through each other like a fishing net. It was our only chance.

  Alena saw where I was looking. “Really?” she asked.

  “Really,” I confirmed as I backed up so we could get a running start.

  I placed my arm around my companion’s waist. She wrapped hers over my shoulders, and we ran as hard as our exhausted legs could take us.

  I cast the spell two steps from the ravine’s edge, and we soared through the air. After a couple of seconds, it became clear we didn’t have enough momentum to make it to the other side, so we reached out for the roots and caught them with our free hands only a foot from the top.

  “See?” I said as we found purchase for our feet and began to climb. “No problem.”

  She laughed. It sounded nervous but genuine. We had trouble dragging our exhausted bodies up the roots, having run all night, but we made it to the top and collapsed on the forest floor. The guards who’d been chasing us got to the ravine a few minutes later. Their looks of dismay brought a tired smile to Alena’s face.

  “Bye, ladies,” she taunted before we turned our backs and walked away.

  “How far does the ravine go?” I asked. “How long will it take them to get around it?”

  “Oh, it goes pretty far,” she said. “We have a full day at least.”

  We continued to walk for almost an hour before we stopped at a stream for a drink. The water was cool and clean. I splashed some on my face and the back of my neck.

  “I think we can be pretty confident about your theory,” Alena said. “About the whole only being able to track us at night thing.”

  “Yeah. Did you hear what the captain said, though?”

  She shrugged and dunked her face into the cool stream for a second before squeezing her hair out.

  “He asked me if I was a mage. That means he knows one.”

  “It has to be the priest,” Alena said. “And it must’ve been his potion room—the place where I got my book from. And the tracking. They all have to be related.”