by B. T. Narro
Red-faced, Cason casted at Leon with a swing of his closed fist. A huge blast of dteria flew over our heads as we ducked. Cason cast again, this time too low. It struck the ground, spewing dirt at us.
Leon was already casting back, a jet of fire bathing Cason as the dark mage screamed and fell to get away from it.
“Cover my back, Jon,” Leon said as he walked toward Cason while continuing the fire spell.
Cason screamed as Leon cooked him, while I braced myself for the two charging enemies. Weaponless, I could not deal with either of them getting close.
Unable to cast two spells at the same time, I had to choose one enemy to strike. I had sparred with my father plenty of times, him with a sword and me without one. I could never win, but that was my father and this man was not. Besides, I was a sorcerer now.
I blasted the staff-wielder with a thick cluster of dvinia into his chest. I didn’t have nearly the same power as Cason with his dteria, but I could knock down the man, and it had to hurt.
The swordsman lunged at me. I moved to the side and grabbed his arm, but he lifted his palm with his other hand and hit me with a spell of dark magic.
I flew away from him. “Leon, watch out!” I yelled, temporarily taken out of the fight.
Leon looked behind him as he was about to be cut in half. He jumped toward Cason to avoid the strike.
Cason screamed as he put his hands on himself. I watched his charred flesh repair itself from his healing spell.
Fire isn’t going to finish him off quickly enough. We need a weapon.
Cason was slow getting up. I assisted Leon, his wind and my dvinia, as we blew the other two enemies back and turned our focus on Cason.
Or at least that’s what I thought we would do at first.
“Run,” Leon said as he darted around Cason with me right behind him.
But dteria clenched my torso and pulled me back. I groaned as I fought against it, trying to run in place and winning slightly, but then it lifted me up as my feet flailed.
Leon turned around. “Resist it, Jon!”
I tried to push against the spell with both my hands and my mana, but it didn’t seem to do much good. I looked back at Cason as I floated. Half his face was still burned off.
Leon unleashed another jet of fire, but this was directed at the staff-wielder who sprinted at him, forcing the man back. Next he targeted the charging swordsman. He couldn’t keep them away indefinitely. Soon the two of them were running around me to get at Leon.
I still couldn’t get my feet on the ground, and I couldn’t seem to resist the spell, either. But I could see that Cason was fatigued as he strained to keep hold of me, his outstretched arm shaky.
I assumed he couldn’t grab Leon because my instructor’s resistance was too strong. But Leon was not the fighter I was, and soon he would have to deal with the staff-wielder as he kept the swordsman back with fire.
I gave up trying to free myself and hit Cason with a weak spell of dvinia, as he was too far for it to be stronger. He stumbled back, but his ring of dteria held at my waist.
Leon flinched as he took a hard blow to his shoulder. I was too busy to see what happened to him after. I took the time to put everything I had into my next casting of Expel, this one aimed at Cason’s hideous face. It toppled Cason hard as his feet swept into the air.
I was finally free.
I watched Leon take another blow from the staff, this one to his chin. It staggered him as he lost his footing and started to fall. The swordsman was screaming, his shirt on fire, but the staff-wielder was free to strike Leon on his unprotected head.
I screamed as I charged the man. He gaped at me for just a moment before I shouldered him into the air.
He still had hold of his weapon, which meant I would still be weaponless. I knelt down and healed Leon’s face. He stopped groaning as his eyes came back into focus.
“Thanks,” he muttered as I helped him up.
The swordsman then dropped his sword to take off his burning shirt. I made a run for the weapon, but the staff mage struck me with a spell of Dislodge, and it did exactly what it was intended to do.
Disoriented at first, I realized too late that I was soaring toward the wall of a bakery and struck it hard.
I didn’t bother healing myself. Nothing was broken, though my shoulder hurt like hell. The swordsman, more interested in making sure he wasn’t still on fire than in the sword on the ground, didn’t see me coming as I slammed into his body and knocked him off his feet.
I grabbed up the sword and held it out as the staff mage started to come for me. He stopped.
“Heard of me, have you?” I taunted, feeling confident for the first time during this whole debacle.
He had a glower as he tried to find a safe way in, slowly circling. There was no point in either of us casting. It was too draining. This had to end with a weapon.
I could hear Leon fighting with Cason, but I couldn’t take my eyes off my enemy as he came at me with a thrust of his long staff.
It was damn quick, nearly breaking my nose as I leaned back. I tried to counterattack with my own lurch, but my sword didn’t reach him as he backed off too fast.
I cursed inwardly. He was skilled, and I had never fought someone with a long staff before.
A quick check to the side showed the swordsman coming toward me with a look of concentration. I didn’t know where he would aim his spell, but I tensed my body and my mana as he pushed out his hand toward me.
The clear energy of dteria sped at my ankles too fast for me to jump over. Knowing it would knock me down, I readied myself to fall, did so gracefully, then jumped up quickly enough to impale the staff mage as he went for a powerful overhead strike at my back.
He gasped as my sword caught him the stomach, his weapon falling. I pulled out my sword because I had to finish him before Cason could heal the man, but his weak spell of dteria forced me to stumble away.
The staff mage fell and tried to call out but couldn’t speak. I had a pang of guilt as I rushed him while he struggled to breathe. I didn’t want to kill any of these men, but they obviously wanted us dead and wouldn’t stop until we were.
I realized just before reaching him that if Cason was killed first, the others could be captured. I left the mage on the ground and turned to help Leon. My instructor was nearly flung into me as I looked his way. I thought for a moment to catch him, but ducking seemed like a better idea. Leon was not small.
He spiraled over me, leaving me to face Cason, but now I had a sword.
Cason looked like a wild animal who had fought himself to exhaustion as he collapsed to one knee. Leon had definitely burned him again, Cason’s tattered shirt loosely hanging around his stomach. He had fresh streaks of black and red across his neck and face. All his hair was gone.
He had underestimated us greatly.
I charged.
I felt an immense force of dteria surround Cason, but I didn’t see him preparing the spell with his hands. Before I could get to him, Cason shot into the air faster than a bird taking flight. Looking up at him soaring streets away, I saw someone else hovering above, just a silhouette with the sun behind him.
The man cast his hand down at me and a strong plate of dteria pressed me against the ground, but not before flipping me onto my stomach. I couldn’t get up, the spell too powerful. I couldn’t see what was happening.
Then, suddenly, it was gone, and so was the silhouette in the sky. Cason was far, I didn’t know exactly where. He had flown so high that a fall would’ve killed anyone else, but he could slow his fall whenever he needed. He would heal himself as soon as he was safe.
Given his injuries, Cason couldn’t have lifted himself to safety. Who was it I had seen?
The swordsman who Leon had burned fled from us, and we let him go. We had a prisoner, this dying mage at our feet.
“I can heal you,” I told him. “But only if you talk. Somebody just helped Cason, someone more powerful than him. Who was it?”
He could only seem to make a sound of pain for some time, but then a single word came out.
“Heal.”
“We’re taking him to the castle,” Leon said as he pulled the man up by his arms. “Keep an eye out for illusions, Jon.”
There was no one around us, but I did see a group of guards running toward us a street away. I didn’t think this dying man would make it to the castle, though. He would bleed out first.
The mage screamed and pulled his arms out of Leon’s hold, the pain obviously too much. “Heal…me!” he uttered.
“Just heal him enough so he can walk on his own,” Leon said. “We have to get out of here quickly.”
I took that to mean that Leon’s healing spell wouldn’t do anything for this kind of wound.
I bent down to place my hands over the bleeding opening and put my all into healing him for a few moments, watching the wound close. I gladly stopped as soon as his skin had been repaired, as he was screaming in agony right next to my ear.
“Come on, now.” Leon pulled him up by his arms again, this time getting the mage to his feet.
“I don’t know anything!” the man said.
“All right, give me the sword, Jon. If he has nothing to tell us, I’m going to kill him right now.”
I handed the blade to Leon, figuring he was bluffing, and took hold of the mage’s arms.
It seemed that the mage thought the same thing, refusing to speak as Leon lifted the sword over the man’s heart.
But then Leon made a face as if he was about to push the blade hard.
“Wait!” the mage yelled.
“What do you know?” Leon asked.
“A lot, but I want a deal.”
I demanded, “Tell us who saved Cason, and we will consider giving you a reduced charge.”
“I will only speak with the king.”
“Then you will die,” Leon said and put the point of the sword over the man’s heart again. “Last chance.” Leon motioned that he would push the tip in.
“I’m only speaking to the king,” the mage reiterated.
As Leon’s face crossed with anger, I feared he might kill this man while I held his arms from behind. I didn’t anticipate the blade going all the way through and piercing me, but this was not a place I wanted to be standing if this was really going to happen.
Three guards arrived. “We were told Cason was here,” said one, all out of breath.
“He was,” I notified them. “Cason attacked us with this man and one other. The other escaped, and so did Cason.”
“Which way?” asked a guard.
“I didn’t see where Cason went. Leon?” I asked.
“Negative, but I burned the other one pretty good. He ran off that way.” Leon pointed the opposite way the guards had come. “You three should go after him.”
“What about Cason?” asked one of the men.
“You’re not going to catch him without sorcery,” Leon said.
It was true. Cason should be able to escape any number of guards, unless one or more of them was skilled with a bow.
“Leave a pair of shackles,” Leon said.
One of the guards handed over a pair. Then they took off.
Leon cuffed the man behind his back.
“Come on,” Leon said. He grabbed the man by his hair with one hand and held the sword against him with the other. With a little pull to his hair, then a push to his back, he got the man to start walking in front of us. The mage did so with a hunch, a hand over his stomach.
He should still be injured internally. I could feel that my spell hadn’t fully healed him yet, just closed his wound. I was confident I could repair any damage that had been done as I watched him stagger a couple times. He could suffer for now, though.
Leon was clearly on guard, glancing around frequently, which made me think that this was still not over. He had mentioned to look out for illusions earlier, but if there were others who were going to attack, wouldn’t they have already done so?
“What are you looking out for?” I asked him.
“Cason. He can cloak himself like that elf.”
He was talking about Eslenda.
“Then why didn’t he turn invisible earlier?” I wondered.
“Because of the difficulty of the spell. Not even that elf could remain invisible and act. It takes too much concentration and effort. Cason can probably barely move while he’s cloaked, but I know from Jennava that he can cloak.”
“So then he couldn’t kill us while cloaked.”
“It’s not us I’m worried about. Can you move any faster?” Leon complained to the mage.
“Not unless Jon heals me more.”
“That’s not happening,” Leon said. “You’re not running away from us.”
“Then this is as fast as I can go.”
“How do you know my name?” I asked. “Who is the one talking?”
“Not until we speak with the king and he agrees to a contract bound by ordia.”
“What do you hope this contract will say?” Leon asked skeptically. “You think you’re going to be free after this? The best you can hope for is a reduced sentence, and your best bet of getting one is by cooperating with us now. Who the hell is talking? How do you and the others know about Jon?”
I was glad to see someone besides myself getting so pissed off about this betrayal.
“I’m not going to say anything until the contract is ready.”
“Wait,” Leon said. “Did you see something?”
“Where?” I asked.
“Right ahead of us.” He pointed. “I think there’s someone there.”
I started to make out a clear silhouette in the shape of a man just five yards in front of us. Leon and I both let go of the mage at the same time as we ran at Cason, but then he appeared with a black bow, an arrow aimed in between Leon and me.
Leon and I casted at the same time, him Wind and me Expel, but it was too late. Cason let the arrow go. I flinched, but it passed right between us and struck the mage in the chest.
“Shit. Go heal him, Jon!” Leon yelled as he ran after Cason.
I sprinted back and put my hands around the arrow, then started to heal. The mage was groaning weakly, his eyes closing. The arrow seemed to have struck him straight in the heart.
I panicked, casting as I told my mana to heal his heart. I felt it start to work, but was it too late?
The strain was nearly unbearable, as I was still tired from this long ordeal. I shut my eyes and focused hard. There was so much damage to his heart, the arrow still stuck within. I couldn’t do anything to stop it.
This wasn’t going to work. I had to cease my spell to attempt to pull the arrow out, but it wouldn’t budge. I tried to go back to healing.
It was too late. His eyes were shut. His body was limp.
He was gone.
I cursed as I got up and turned around, but Leon was alone in the street.
“Where’d he go?” I asked frantically.
“Into the damn sky again! But this time he lifted himself.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because he was fully healed, Jon, and I saw him cast the spell. Besides, he didn’t take off as quickly as last time.”
“So you saw the other man as well?”
“I couldn’t see shit with the sun behind him.”
“Do you have any idea who it could be?”
“Not a clue.”
Leon’s voice didn’t have the same sharp tone as before. Was he lying to me?
“Leon, if you have even a guess you have to tell me.”
“What do you think not a clue means? I don’t goddamn know!”
Now he sounded more certain, but I still wasn’t sure. Leon cursed as he threw the sword at the ground.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
More of the city guards had arrived by then. After we explained what happened, some left to aid the others in searching for the mage Leon had burned. Others took care of the body of the one Cason had kill
ed.
The dead man had papers on him, an identity. Perhaps Byron Lawson might find out something. It wasn’t a surprise to find papers on him. Everyone in Lycast was required to carry papers with an official marking, and Byron’s guards had been asking to see the papers of anyone who appeared suspicious. To not carry them was pretty much an admission of guilt.
I picked up the staff of the dead man but dropped it immediately and stepped away.
“Enchanted with dteria?” Leon asked.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll take it back to be destroyed.”
My mana was altered from just the moment I’d touched it. “You sure?” I asked.
“Remember how long I used an essence to teach all of you to resist? I’ll be fine.” Leon picked it up, shuddered for a moment, then started heading back.
We were quiet the whole way he carried it back to the castle.
It was a shock when we arrived to see that the king was in the courtyard. He seemed to be speaking to Kataleya, but everyone else had gathered to listen—all other sorcerers, and even Jennava and Barrett circling around. As Leon and I got closer, and I saw the dark look on Michael’s face, I realized something was very wrong.
“Did you speak to him about Jon’s mana?” the king was asking Kataleya as we joined the gathering around the two of them.
“Speak to whom?” I asked, figuring I could butt in as this pertained to me.
“Her father,” the king said.
Leon tossed the dteria-enchanted staff away from us. “What’s going on?” he asked the king.
“Kataleya must be asked a few questions. Silence, everyone, except for Kataleya. Answer the question. Did you speak to him about Jon’s mana?”
Kataleya appeared confused. “I believe I spoke about everyone’s ranges a little. Jon’s was so wide a range I’m sure I mentioned it. I don’t understand why this would be wrong, sire. My father is involved with you in many affairs. I thought you trusted him and the rest of my family.”
The king, tall with broad shoulders, towered over Kataleya, who wasn’t exactly small, but none of the girls was particularly tall.
“Did you also tell your father that you would be going to Koluk with Jon and Reuben to help Leon’s friend?” the king questioned.
