Dark Mage Rises

by J. J. Green

  The battle below was over. The winning mech was leaving the pit and techs were entering from the other side to remove the loser. The crowd was quietening as people began to leave their seats and move around during the interval.

  “Well, well, well,” Castiel said, “our half-sister’s quite the fighter, isn’t she?”

  Through the pounding of her head, Parthenia took a moment to register what her brother had said. Even then, she didn’t guess right away what he was referring to. “What do you mean?”

  “Carina, you idiot,” Castiel sneered. “How dumb are you? I can’t believe you haven’t noticed her image displayed all over the stadium. She just won that battle.”

  Parthenia’s mouth fell open as she gazed up at the figure of a woman wearing a mask, which was flashing on the display board. It was Carina. How had she missed it?

  “Of course,” Castiel continued, “she’s a pretty good mage too, though not as good as me. When she’s under my control I’ll be sure to make use of all her talents.”

  Parthenia shot a look at her brother. Did his statement mean what it seemed to imply? Castiel’s expression was neutral and far-gazing, lost in dreams of power and control. Parthenia imagined what would be the outcome if her brother tried to force himself on Carina. If he were lucky, he might leave the encounter intact. She sniggered.

  Castiel heard. He spun to face her. “What’s so funny?” he demanded. “You think you can get away with laughing at me? I’ll… I’ll… ”

  Langley placed a hand gently on his shoulder. She was sitting behind him. “It wouldn’t be wise to do anything rash in front of all these people, Castiel. Please consider the Dirksen reputation.”

  He shrugged her off and scowled. After a moment, he leaned close to Parthenia and spoke into her ear. “That bitch might think she has a hold over me, but I’m only tolerating her until I find my feet. I’m going to rule the Dirksen clan, and after I’ve crushed the Sherrerrs into dust, I’m going to rule this entire sector. People complain about the two clans, but they don’t know the meaning of suffering. They won’t know what’s hit them when I’m in charge. They’ll look back on these days like they were paradise. So you better watch out, Parthenia. You better not laugh at me again. I won’t forget it. I’ll make you pay, and there won’t be anyone who can stop me.”

  Castiel’s words chilled Parthenia. Though she knew what her brother was capable of, hearing him state his intentions out loud was horrifying. And he could do it, she realized. He could do everything he wanted to because he was a mage.

  The second battle was about to start. The doors the mechs entered through were opening. Castiel took a swig of elixir. Parthenia gasped. That was what he was doing! He was trying to Transport Carina out of her mech. Castiel closed his eyes. Parthenia wanted to do something, but what? If she knocked him to distract him, he would only ask Harmon to take her outside. She would have lost her chance. She had to do something effective and long-lasting.

  As Parthenia dithered Castiel must have made his Cast, for he opened his eyes and muttered something that she couldn’t hear over the noise of the crowd. The mechs below had entered into battle. Castiel stood up and searched the stadium with his gaze. After a moment, he turned and spoke to Langley.

  Her eyebrows lifted in response to his comment. She beckoned Harmon and told him the news, and he in turn spoke into his comm.

  Though she loathed speaking to Castiel, Parthenia had a feeling that whatever it was he’d realized, it was pertinent information. She shouted over the crowd, “What is it Castiel? Has Carina left?”

  “Ha! No,” he replied. “You guessed I was trying to Transport her? Well, you’ll be delighted to hear our dear siblings are here somewhere. They’ve stupidly revealed themselves by attempting to Repulse my Casts. I thought I noticed something odd going on earlier. Now I’m convinced of it. So it looks as though I have all my little birds in one trap. Very convenient.” He gave Parthenia a ghoulish smile.

  Parthenia turned from him in disgust. She hated the thought of being related to him. More than that, she hated how powerless she felt. She couldn’t bear the thought of all her sisters and brothers being under his control, and his plans for the future sounded monstrous. But what could she do? She was just one person and she couldn’t even fight.

  Below her, the mechs were battling hard. Carina seemed to be winning but Parthenia found it hard to tell. She wondered why her sister had decided to take part. It was very strange, especially since it had led to Castiel discovering her. And now it looked like the Dirksen thugs were roaming the crowds looking for their siblings too.

  If Castiel succeeded in capturing their remaining family they would be back to a life of servitude—possibly a worse one than they’d endured under Father. Their Mother had been there to protect them to an extent, but Castiel had no one to moderate his behavior.

  Parthenia watched Carina fight, wishing she was as strong and brave as her sister. Castiel sipped from his elixir again and closed his eyes. He was entirely unafraid of her, she realized. He was comfortably certain that she would sit next to him passively and do nothing to stop him.

  A mighty crash resounded below as the mechs collided. Then another crash sounded, though this one was more like thunder and it came from outside the stadium. After a short, confused pause, the crowd returned to their shouts and chanting.

  Parthenia’s heart was racing. The scenario of the future that was playing out in her mind terrified her. She couldn’t let it happen. She just couldn’t. Even if she didn’t manage to save herself, she had to do something to save her brothers and sisters. She had to make a gesture, no matter how insignificant.

  A deafening boom sounded and echoed through the stadium. Again, the noise hadn’t come from the mechs. The crowd grew quieter as they tried to understand what was happening. Castiel was also puzzled. He peered around, his bottle of elixir in his hand.

  Parthenia took her chance. She grabbed the bottle. Castiel registered a moment of shock before trying to snatch it back. He was too late. Parthenia threw the bottle down so hard it smashed. The elixir soaked into the floor. Castiel looked up at her, white with rage.

  She didn’t care. She’d made her gesture. Now what else could she do?

  Chapter Forty-Four

  The third battle of the evening was turning out to be Carina’s hardest yet. It wasn’t surprising. Her mech had taken considerable damage. The techs had done their best to patch up the machine over the interval but nearly half the display wasn’t lit and neither of her secondary pincers were working. Also, the first mech she’d faced had pummeled one of her legs so much it didn’t function properly and was slowing her down.

  For close-quarters fighting, that didn’t matter too much—it wasn’t like she could run away from her opponent—but Carina needed as much of her mech as possible to be working if she were to survive to the final round.

  One thing to be thankful for was that her mage siblings were doing a good job of deflecting Castiel’s Casts. Though she could hardly see any of the crowd, Carina knew her brother had to be there. She hoped her brothers and sister would be able to keep up their efforts all night, and that Langley’s thugs wouldn’t find them. Bryce had assured her they would be hard to discover in the packed stadium, but that didn’t stop her from worrying.

  A pincer gripped her mech’s head. Damn. She’d allowed herself to become distracted. Carina turned on the spot, twisting out of the grip, though the scraping and rending noises this caused was painful to her ears. Her remaining systems were still intact so the damage was probably surface-only.

  When fighting, it paid to vary your technique. Her current opponent would have watched her previous battles in order to attempt to predict what she might do. Carina had already used up her one chance at surprising the opposition by foregoing custom and launching straight into an attack—a move The Stomper had severely admonished her for. He’d said she’d nearly forfeited the match, except the officials couldn’t find anything in the rule book to say
she couldn’t do that.

  In her second battle, she’d bypassed to obvious moves once again. She hadn’t even attempted to hit her opponent. Instead, she’d run straight into him, chest to chest, grappled him, and drilled into his knees with her transformed secondary pincers. That had been what had ruined the pincers, though it had won her the fight.

  This time, she needed something new. While she was thinking, she smashed into her opponent. At the same time, a crash sounded outside that hadn’t come from the collision. Carina was puzzled. She’d thought she’d heard loud noises in her previous fight—and they had to be exceptionally loud for her to hear them over everything else. She’d thought a massive thunderstorm was on its way, but the latest sound hadn’t been thunder.

  A bang exploded above her. Carina felt the shockwave in her bones. Her head-up display flashed and disappeared. Her mech had received a colossal blow to the head. The system might reboot and kick in again but for now she was working blind.

  In one way, it was frustrating. In another, it was liberating. Carina had learned the ropes of hand-to-hand fighting long ago. With her computer system out, her mech was just an extension of her.

  She peered through the slit and spotted the looming shadow of her opponent, who was gearing up for another strike. Carina spun away on her good leg, turned 360 degrees, and flailed both her main pincers into her opponent’s side. The other mech had missed her entirely when she moved and was raising itself again.

  The concussion vibrated through Carina’s cabin, but she hadn’t managed to hit hard enough to knock down her opponent. She would have to resort to a tactic she’d been hoping to save for the final battle. It was a desperate measure that would result in more damage to her mech but she couldn’t think of anything else.

  She activated the circular saw in her mech’s head. At least, she hoped she activated it because her display wasn’t telling her. Then she heard a satisfying buzz over the screams of the crowd. The onlookers clearly knew what she intended and loved the spectacle.

  Carina drove into her opponent. She wouldn’t be able to get a good swing at him this way, but she hoped to saw into his mech and mess up his systems so badly he couldn’t operate. The opposing mech controller had two options: try to get away or also activate his saw.

  The noise of buzzing and grinding redoubled. Her opponent chosen the latter option, which was bad news for Carina but hopefully worse news for the other mech. She had a few seconds’ head start. Now it was just a waiting game. She tried to pummel him as well, despite the constraints of the confined space.

  A whistling sound pierced the air, quickly followed by the roar of an explosion. The excited screams of the crowd turned to shrieks of horror. Carina leaned forward to see out of the narrow view hole but all that was visible to her was the blank metal of the other mech. What was going on? That last thing she’d heard had sounded like—

  “We’re under attack! We’re being attacked!”

  It was the other mech operator shouting at her.

  Of course! That was the source of the other explosions: the Sherrerrs had launched their takeover of Ostillon. A crackling fizz filled the stadium and light flared into Carina’s cabin. Wails and shouts were coming from the crowd. Carina could imagine the panic and rush to leave. She hoped that Bryce and the kids weren’t hurt and that Bryce could get them all out safely. But what should she do?

  Carina realized her saw was still operating and her opponent was yelling for her to turn it off. She tried but the saw didn’t respond. “I can’t,” she called out. “My system’s down. Nothing’s working.”

  The other mech moved away from her. Without the supporting pressure, Carina’s mech began to fall. She hit the ground face down and dangled in her safety straps. The saw in her mech’s head continued to grind away.

  Carina couldn’t see a thing. All her viewing slits were coated in the dust her saw was throwing up in showers. The sounds from outside were a jumble of panicked voices punctuated by the bombardment of the Sherrerr forces. Carina realized that the techs who were responsible for her machine were probably running for their lives. She was on her own.

  She unfastened her straps one by one, gradually lowering herself to the front of her chamber, which was now the floor. She crawled up the side to the door and punched the exit button. Predictably, the door remained closed. It would run on the same system as the rest of the mech. If she’d been trapped in there after a fight, the techs would have their own way of opening it. Now, she didn’t know how she was going to get out.

  Carina began to search around in the near darkness. There had to be a manual release mechanism somewhere. The Stomper hadn’t bothered to show her what to do in an emergency, but it didn’t make any sense to leave the operator with no way of getting out by themselves.

  Her fingers probed the bumpy surfaces. As she searched, the realization hit her that her entire plan had fallen apart. She wouldn’t win her prize or her bets, and the arms dealer wouldn’t be waiting for her with the stuff she needed.

  Parthenia would remain trapped on the Dirksen estate—only now she would be moved somewhere else, perhaps to another planet as the Dirksens fled Ostillon.

  Dammit. Carina’s heart ached for her sister. She couldn’t bear the thought of her being held captive by Castiel, a clone of his father. With an entire galactic sector to search, how would she ever find her?

  Chapter Forty-Five

  The stadium was in utter chaos. Parthenia had guessed that her father’s clan were attacking Ostillon. She was trying to fight against the flow of the crowd, but it was hopeless. Then she noticed the seating was nearly empty. Everyone was crowding into the aisles. Parthenia edged along a row and began climbing over the seats.

  She had to reach Carina. She could see her sister’s mech was down and disabled, and she was sure she hadn’t seen her sister emerge from it. As Parthenia reached for a seat, her hand twinged with pain. She rubbed her knuckles, smiled, and continued on.

  All around her the people surged and pushed, heading in the opposite direction. Another hissing, crackling projectile arrived, impacting close by the stadium. Whoever was attacking, they were intent on destroying the city. Parthenia had to help Carina out and get her away. The stadium had already received a glancing blow that had destroyed part of an outer wall. It was only a matter of time before the place would be razed to rubble.

  Parthenia wished she could shout to her sister to reassure her that someone was coming but she would never be heard over the noise. There was also the chance that one of Langley’s guards might notice her and recapture her. She hoped they would be fleeing the stadium too or helping Langley and Reyes to safety. Perhaps they were carrying Castiel out with them. She smiled again.

  She’d reached the edge of the lowest tier of seating, at the very edge of the pit. Now she was there, however, Parthenia couldn’t see any way down. The drop was too deep to jump. If she had elixir she could Transport in, but she had none. She ran around the edge. It was deserted except for jumbles of coats and other belongings left behind by the fleeing spectators.

  There had to be a way into the pit. Why couldn’t she find it? She noticed a dark, empty exit between the seats. Seeing no other option, Parthenia ran through it and down the stairs at the end of the passage. The noises from outside grew fainter as she descended, following each turn of the stairs and ignoring the doors at each landing. The air became cool and moist. She was definitely heading into the depths of the stadium.

  Finally, the stairs came to an end. Parthenia pushed open a set of double doors. She had reached the pit. Up close, the two mechs looked even more enormous than they had from above. The center of the standing one was open, its operator gone. The prone mech—Carina’s—was still operating. The saw in its head was gouging a deep trough in the sand and throwing up a cloud of dust.

  Parthenia ran over to Carina’s mech. She could barely make head or tail of the thing but she guessed that Carina had to be somewhere in its center. The dust was choking her.
Parthenia lifted her shirt over her nose and squinted to keep it out of her eyes. When she arrived at the belly of the mech, she banged on its side. “Carina! Can you hear me?” Her fist striking the metal made no sound, or at least nothing she could hear over the whine of the saw, the still-noisy crowd, and the regular explosions of air-to-ground fire.

  “Carina,” Parthenia shouted at the top of her voice before subsiding into a fit of coughing. Surely there had to be a way to see inside the mech? She wiped dust from her face and stepped closer to the spinning saw. She noticed a ridge running up the side of the machine where a bank of dust had built up.

  Parthenia pulled her sleeve over her hand and wiped the ridge clean. It was the edge of a narrow slit. She peered through it but she could only see darkness. She put her mouth to the slit. “Carina! Are you in there?”

  Then she turned her head and placed her ear against the gap. Did she hear an answer? She thought so. Parthenia moved her head to call inside again, but she saw a pair of eyes looking out at her.

  “Carina,” she cried in happiness. Four fingers poked through the slit. Parthenia grabbed them. “How can I get you out?” she shouted.

  Her sister’s reply was faint. “I don’t know. Can you see anything? Like a manual override?”

  Parthenia couldn’t even see the exit to the machine, let alone the mechanism to open it. She asked her sister where she should be looking. When she’d finally found the spot and cleared away the dust to search the area, she still couldn’t find anything to open the hatch. She returned to the slit to tell Carina the bad news.

  As Parthenia was walking around the giant machine, part of the stadium exploded. Debris began to rain down. Parthenia’s ears were ringing. She put her arms over her head for protection and continued to return to Carina. She called to her sister through the gap. The four fingers reappeared and she grasped them. “I couldn’t find it,” she yelled, though her voice sounded faint. “I don’t know how to get you out.”