I could not believe my eyes. Rather, I could, but I didn’t want to.
In my relatively short sixteen years I had seen some crazy magical accidents, natural disasters, and the like. This one surpassed them all. Even combined, they couldn’t compete with this. In front of me was a horror, a nightmare out of a child’s bad dream, all breathed into life and given form. Trees of all types with feet and arms, hands, and a crushing force to kill with. Dogs the size of small ponies that looked like deranged beasts. Cows, horses, donkeys, even the chickens were possessed and attacking everything!
Containing it from the outside was one of the strongest barriers I’d ever seen. The pattern was so intricate and stunning that I almost got lost for a moment, studying the design of it. The architecture of the spell so breathtakingly crafted it almost transcended into art. Even as I watched, one of the creatures slammed up against it, impacting the shield and sending fissures cracking through the barrier. The integrity of the spell’s design crumbled a little more under each impact. It had a renewing clause in the construction, so the barrier wasn’t going to fall immediately, but it certainly couldn’t last forever like this.
Master came up and leaned his head closer to mine, whispering, “How is the barrier holding up?”
“Well, considering,” I answered just as quietly, “but it won’t last another week like this.”
He got a grim set to his mouth. “I was afraid you’d say that. Even with what I can see, it’s not good.”
A mage I didn’t recognize came forward, hand outstretched. “Magus Jon Tarkington?”
“I am, sir. Magus Holden?”
“That’s me. Thank you for coming so quickly.” The mage looked tired, almost to the point of exhaustion. Dark circles haunted under his brown eyes, his hair, lank and oily, draped over his forehead. He was likely thirty and looked fifty, what with the state of his clothes and the lack of sleep. “I know we originally gave you two more weeks to pull a party together, but honestly, we’re not going to be able to keep the barrier up for much longer. We’re doing constant renewing spells on it as it is.”
“We of course want this dealt with it before the containment barrier breaks.” Master Vonda came up to join the conversation and I could feel Bannen move to stand at my shoulder, also listening in. “Tell us what you’ve observed.”
“These creatures are all over the area inside.” Holden gestured to the ones beating at the barrier shield. “We put a mouse inside, wanting to test what was causing this, and it remained normal for some three days before it too turned. Because of that, we feel it’s safe for humans to enter for a few hours, but I do not recommend staying in there overnight. Aside from you likely turning, night gets far worse for some reason.”
I leaned sideways and asked Bannen softly, “Can you tell? Is it Toh’sellor?”
There was a dark cast on Bannen’s face. “It’s certainly looking that way.”
My throat went dry. Truly?! How had Toh’sellor’s influence gotten all the way down south? We were a continent away from it! No, maybe it could still be attributed to something else. I shouldn’t jump to conclusions just yet. Even Bannen wasn’t entirely sure.
Our by-play had not escaped my master’s notice. He exchanged a speaking look with Bannen but spoke to Holden, “Any signs of what caused this?”
“Not a one. We don’t even have mages in this area, unless they’re traveling through. This is very quiet farmland and nothing more.” Holden scrubbed at his face, exhaustion radiating from every gesture. “Believe me, we’ve tried to find the cause. We’ve done nothing but that for the past two weeks. The one thing that we’ve been able to determine is that the cause for it, whatever it is, is in the very center of this area. My familiar,” he petted a merlin perched on his shoulder, “scouted it out for us by air and was able to tell me that much.”
So we have to fight to the center? I looked up at the sky and estimated that we had perhaps eight hours of daylight left. That didn’t leave us a lot of time.
“We might not make it into the center today,” Master Vonda determined, staring thoughtfully at the monsters, “but I think we should at least try.”
Holden didn’t seem surprised, which made me think he’d come to the same conclusion. “The problem is that there’re very few places where I can let you in. Most of the barrier has monsters trying to break out. Getting a clear path is going to be tricky.”
Almost in unison, Bannen and Master said, “Rena can get us through.”
In the next instant, all eyes were on me. Thanks. Thanks a lot, I did not want to be the center of attention.
Perhaps Bannen sensed something, as he put a hand at the small of my back. Not forcing me forward, but more a silent statement that I had his full support. I drew in a breath and looked directly at Holden, as it was easier to focus on him than everyone at once. “You don’t need to drop the barrier. I can work through it and clear enough of an area for us to at least safely enter.”
Holden gave me a kind smile, a little patronizing. “This barrier is set to deflect all spells.”
“She doesn’t use spells.” Bannen gave me a nudge. “Go ahead, Rena. I don’t think he’ll get it unless you demonstrate.”
Bannen was right. I had the same feeling. As this needed to be a quick demonstration, I focused on just a tree monster, a little sapling at the forefront. I broke down his schematic, found the root base of his physical makeup, and ignored the strange power thrumming through him. The magic didn’t matter. If I could destroy its base, then it became kindling and nothing more. I spoke a dissembling spell, instructing my magic exactly what to extract and void, down to the last detail. The words were strange and familiar at the same time, as I’d never tried to destroy wood before.
To the people standing nearby, the tree sapling was raging one second and then poof, gone the next.
Holden swore aloud and jumped like a startled deer. “How did she do that? I’ve never heard of magic like that!”
“No one has. But that’s how my magic works. I dismantle things.”
Like most of the world, Holden looked very unnerved as the full implications hit of what I could do. He didn’t quite know how to look at me. I sighed, used to it, and forged ahead. “As soon as everyone is ready to breach, I’ll start the spell and clear us out an area.”
“Sounds like a fine plan,” Master Bly agreed. “Alright, people, form up.”
Apprentices and mages all went into the prearranged square. The masters were set to be our support, leaving us to do the real work, so they were in the back. The rest of us were in the front and sides, the familiars set outside with the apprentices directly next to them, forming a double square. The strongest fighters made up the front line, standing within spitting distance of the shield.
As people moved, Bannen asked, “Why did he look at you like that? Like you suddenly grew a second head.”
I gave him an arch look. “Most people, when they realize I can reduce them to dust, are unnerved.”
“I wasn’t,” he protested.
“You’re strange,” I retorted sweetly.
That made him laugh. Not going to deny it, eh?
Master was trying to catch my eye without being obvious about it but I deliberately acted like I didn’t see it. I knew what he was worried about, what he was going to ask—this situation was more intense than we had been given to believe. If he had known, he would not have brought me here. He didn’t think I had the strength for it. I understood my limitations, but at the same time I didn’t want to be left behind again.
The person who would be able to stop me was Bannen, because it was his life that I was really putting on the line. I had no doubt that if it came down it, he’d protect me with his life, and I didn’t want to force him into that position. So I asked him with my eyes whether I should go or not.
Those dark almond-shaped eyes looked at mine, unflinching, without a shadow of doubt in them. I looked at him and knew that he wasn’t going to hold me back. If I wante
d to go, he’d be right behind me. My chest swelled with confidence as I held his eyes.
Steph tentatively approached, a hand raised. “Um, Rena? Bannen? I know we said earlier I’d be right beside you on the line, but…this is worse than I thought. I’m not sure I can protect myself out there without a familiar’s help.”
I knew what she was asking. Steph’s one of my oldest friends, I didn’t want to leave her in the lurch, but demanding that Bannen protect two people wasn’t fair of me. I turned to him, as it was his call to make.
Bannen looked between the two of us and stated, in an overly patient tone, “Ladies. You shouldn’t even be questioning this. Steph, you stick with us. I can only protect you if you’re within reach.”
She looked utterly relieved. “Thank you so much.”
I was seriously beginning to adore Bannen. Satisfied Steph would be well protected, I glanced around, found that everyone was more or less in position. “Everyone ready?” I called out. When I got grunts of assent, I focused on the monsters. I needed to take down every single one in this immediate vicinity if we were to have a prayer of stepping in without getting our heads bashed. “Alright, then. Here we go.”
Bannen pivoted on one foot and went into a fighting stance a little ahead of me, enough to offer protection without interfering with my sight lines. Seeing him positioned so made me absurdly happy. Not many people ever chose to get in front of me when they knew I’d be working magic.
Usually when I’m ready to do a spell, I focus entirely on the task directly in front of me. This time worked a little differently, in that I had to keep my scope wide enough to create a clearing for us to step into. That in mind, I broadened my range as far as I could stretch it, taking in everything that I could see and spoke to it in a combined form. Because I had animals and plants in front of me, I had to lengthen the spell to include both characteristics. The chaotic energy from the piece or fragment or whatever it was of Toh’sellor didn’t help, either. It warped things outside of their natural boundaries, pushing the body into a grotesque image of itself that messed with the schematics in a very strange way. I couldn’t define it, I couldn’t even trace them, I just had to go with what elements I knew they had to be made up of. At least in part. There did seem to be one element that each minion shared, a small piece of stone that hovered somewhere within the center, but I couldn’t see past the first four, so I wasn’t sure if all of them had it. I went with elements instead, promising myself I’d study the minions and figure it out later.
Water, calcium, nitrogen, and potassium are elements that both animal and plants share, so I focused on eliminating those. A few times, I wasn’t sure if I was using the right modifier for the adjective, as phrasing all of this on the fly was more than a little tricky.
I spoke the last word and held my breath, but I didn’t need to be worried. The spell worked completely as I intended it to and everything in my immediate reach became nothing more than fine dust.
“Move!” Master Bly commanded.
The barrier melted away just enough to open a doorway for us to enter through. We ran through, but not far, as this place seemed chock full of creatures. I wasn’t even sure if we all made it inside before Bannen hit the first batch of tree monsters.
The sound of that first impact was horrendous. I instinctively flinched from it, because it sounded like he had broken several bones in one go, the sword in his hand ringing from the impact. This was so very different from the sparring sessions we had, so much more brutal and efficient. I felt ice slide down my spine even as my heart raced, beating a staccato inside my ears.
He flew through them, sword in one hand, a small arm shield on the other, slamming into them and then spinning so that he was on their backsides, drawing their attention around to him. And they did try to surround him, hulking objects that could have been a maple or oak tree at a time, something else that looked like a cow because of the dirty brown color of the hide, but they no longer looked like anything. They were warped, looming, misshapen things that gave out soundless screams, their schematics a tangled mess that made me want to vomit.
Bannen held four of them, dodging their blows and slashing at them all equally, keeping them from turning around to face me and Steph. Like I had a dozen times before in our sparring sessions, I forced my fears down and focused, dismantling them down to their very cells. I could hear and feel Steph fighting at my side, keeping anything from flanking us. I trusted her and didn’t even glance once her direction. I couldn’t afford to.
Even speaking quickly, it always took a full minute at least to get a full spell out. Still, when the monsters went down into piles of ash, Bannen didn’t look hurt or even winded despite the fact he had been fighting four of them at once. I turned to Steph, anxious to help her, but Bannen was moving before I could even get my head fully turned. Steph had one engaged, another one wounded but still struggling up, trying to come after her. Bannen stepped on it, cutting it cleanly in half, then stabbed the one attacking Steph.
I almost wish he hadn’t cut them, as that made things so much worse on a different level. The smell. So vile, so rotten, like meat and broccoli that had been abandoned in a dark, moldy shed for months on end. I had to fight to keep from gagging, breathing through my mouth as much as possible.
With the immediate threats down, Bannen paused for a second and praised, “Doing good, exactly as we practiced. Steph, that too much for you to handle?”
“Any more than two, I’ll be overwhelmed,” she confessed.
“Okay, noted. Scream when you need help,” Bannen half-joked. Turning, he checked the other direction, where Emily and Lori were, but they were actively engaged. I didn’t see any signs of injury and apparently neither did he as he said, “Ladies, let’s continue.”
I lost myself in spells and magical analysis, doing nothing more than focusing on one set of monsters after another. The only time I came out of that strange other-sight where magic encompassed my entire world was to check on Bannen and Steph. I made sure they were with me, that no one was injured, and then I would dive in again.
Someone—likely one of the masters—kept us all more or less in a group as we moved forward. We had started out as a square but had more or less lost the shape at some point and now we were more in a flying V formation. Bannen, Steph, and I comprised the forefront group that acted as a spearpoint. The rest angled off to either side, making sure that nothing came in to attack us from behind. I could hear them fighting, feel the magical attacks like fireworks being set off behind me, sometimes ricocheting off of each other. The noise was deafening—screamed spells, howls of pain, metal clashing against flesh or wood, all of it a cacophony of sounds that threatened my eardrums. I had the hardest time sorting it out, pushing it to the background, and remembering to listen for Bannen. I couldn’t afford to ignore him.
Everyone else’s spells weren’t like mine—they didn’t wink the monsters out of existence, and because of that I smelled burning wood, heard the thumps of the dead impacting the ground. I’d grown largely immune to the smell but every time something else died, the smell renewed for a moment and I felt like throwing up all over again. How were the familiars handling this? The smell was bad enough but they had to bite and claw in order to fight, which meant that they had to get their mouths on these disgusting creatures. I might have to get Shunith a steak later to help wash the taste out.
Time and distance passed in a blur. I had no idea how far in we were when we abruptly stopped on a risen knoll that gave us a good view of the area ahead.
And that, more than anything, made me nearly lose the contents of my stomach.
“What is that?” I breathed, profoundly shaken. It didn’t resemble anything I’d ever seen before. It didn’t resemble anything at all, for that matter. It stood tall, taller than a two-story building, made of chaos, and energy, and a swirling collection of power all mixed in a melting pot with no order to it. It lived but didn’t, had form without substance. It shone with color, light,
darkness, and the absence of it all. It defied all explanation and trying to analyze it magically from this distance gave me vertigo.
Bannen abruptly stood just in front of me, the bond thrumming like a live thing between us, although he looked over my shoulder and toward the masters behind us. “That’s Toh’sellor.”
Master Bly, having not been part of the conversation on the train, or the one over breakfast this morning, scoffed. “Don’t be silly, that’s just a child’s st—”
“It’s real,” Master Vonda corrected, slicing through his objection. “And this boy is the only one among us who’s seen it with his own eyes. I believe him. Bannen, that isn’t Toh’sellor itself, I assume?”
“No ma’am, it’s not. A piece of it only. Toh’sellor takes over an entire mountain range after all.” Frowning, he looked over the entire group and I could see what he was going to say before the words left his mouth. “Your magic isn’t going to have an effect on it.”
Master Bly’s face expressed some serious doubts. “Forgive me, but I’d like to at least try before we jump to conclusions. Whit, what do you think?”
Master Whit had been so quiet during all of this that I had honestly forgotten he was here. The man didn’t even make noise when he walked.
“I think we should attempt a two-prong, long-range attack before we make any decisions.”
“Splendid idea,” Master Bly agreed. But then, he was a fighter, not a thinker. I’d expected that answer from him. “Russ, Derek, Trudy, Clark,” Master Bly called, “come stand here, we’ll do an initial attack and then a simultaneous one. Fire based attack first, for the second, anything goes. Derek, start us off.”
Bannen shifted to stand beside me so that he could watch. He whispered to me, “This isn’t going to work.”
“I know.” I couldn’t see everything from here, but I could tell even at this distance that what Master Bly was intending wouldn’t have the effect he wanted.
“How can they not see it?” Bannen asked the question more rhetorically than anything. “I know you said your eyes are good, better than most mages, but are they really that much better?”
The Human Familiar (Familiar and the Mage Book 1) Page 17
