He couldn’t see any of the others, so he could only hope they were okay. If something had happened to them – to Katie – he might have to take a page out of his master’s book and murder the people responsible in some extremely unpleasant and hideously painful ways. He was not in the market for another apprentice, and he’d gotten used to having the others around too. At least he wasn’t completely alone. Half a dozen of his zombie warriors had made the trip with him, and Rubens, the cunning rat who specialised in stealth, was tucked away in one of his pockets.
He patted the rat. “Stay hidden,” he whispered. “I don’t know who we’re fighting, but you might be able to surprise them later.”
He didn’t have to wait long before he found out whom he was up against. A door built into one of the walls swung open to admit a tall, skinny man dressed in the elaborate blue and violet robes of a Lord of Magic who was affiliated with one of the various arcane orders that answered directly to the emperor. Honestly, the social and class structure of the empire was so labyrinthine that Timmy still wasn’t sure he completely understood it. He’d have to ask Katie about it later. He’d given her several books on the subject, and he was sure she’d already read them. And if he couldn’t ask Katie afterward because something had happened to her, well, he’d have to express his displeasure in the strongest – and most painful – ways possible. The other man had thinning grey hair and a long beard to go with piercing blue eyes. Several insignia on his robes suggested that he could very easily be the one in charge of the whole island. If anyone knew where the Eye was, this man would be the one.
“Welcome to the Isle of Reforging, Timothy Walter Bolton. My name is… Lord Merton.” The man’s voice was deep and powerful despite his slender frame, and it echoed through the chamber as the door swung shut behind him. “I must admit that I underestimated you. You have devastated my fleet and all but destroyed my island, so I thought I would take the liberty of arranging a private chat between the two of us. I am curious to know more about the man who has proven to be so troublesome.”
“What happened to the others who came with me?” Timmy held his shovel with deceptive casualness. Even if the entire room was protected from his magic, he still had some pebbles in his pockets and a pouch full of sand. It wasn’t much, but he had his zombies too. He’d make do, somehow. He always did. Of course, he wouldn’t show his hand this early. And if things really went wrong, his shovel was still a sharp piece of metal.
Merton chuckled and made a sweeping gesture with both arms. Timmy had to fight the urge to throw one of his shovels at the other mage. He’d met theatrical opponents before, but most of them had possessed the good sense to stop when a real battle was at hand. Either Merton was so confident of victory that he didn’t think this would be a real battle, or he was a total idiot. Oh well. Timmy would have to pummel him, so he could use him as an example the next time Katie asked about what not to do in an important battle.
“I’m afraid that all of your… friends have been teleported to different parts of this island. Sadly, you won’t be seeing them again.” Merton cackled. “The bureaucrat? He has most likely met a very spiky end by now. The elf? I imagine that she’s already a pile of ash. The other woman has undoubtedly been devoured by sharks, and your apprentice and the old man are most likely dying in agony after being stung by deadly zombie scorpions.”
Timmy took a moment to process Merton’s words. Was it normal for powerful mages to be so weird? To be fair, he was hardly one to talk although he did try to be less eccentric than his master who had been pretty much insane when he wasn’t drunk. There was Vicky – she was definitely a bit weird – and James wasn’t exactly normal either. It really did seem like it was normal for powerful mages to be odd. “Let me get this straight? You dropped the bureaucrat into a pit full of spikes, you tried to burn the elf, you put the other woman in a pit full of sharks, and you left my apprentice and the old man in a pit full of zombie scorpions?” Timmy began to snicker toward the end, and he didn’t last much longer before bursting into full-blown laughter. In his pocket, he could feel Rubens shaking. The rat most likely shared his opinion about how ridiculous it all was. He ended up laughing so hard that he could barely stand.
“Why are you laughing?” Merton growled. “Are you so callous as to find the deaths of your comrades amusing?”
Timmy held one hand up in apology and sniggered for a few more moments before he finally managed to calm down. “I’m sorry, but… I can’t believe you think any of that is going to work. I’m sorry, but, no. There is no way that any of that is going to work. Plus, you forgot to mention the dragon. Sure, he’s not very big yet, but he’s pretty tough.”
Timmy felt a lot better now. If all these guys had to throw at Katie were some zombie scorpions, she’d be fine. Oh, she wouldn’t like it – Katie was not fond of creepy-crawlies – but her shadows would make short work of some zombie scorpions. But if they had zombie scorpions, then they probably had a necromancer. That could be tricky, but Old Man was with her. The swordsman and Katie ought to be able to handle almost anything they ran into. And fire? Black Scales hadn’t been able to burn Avraniel to death. He sincerely doubted that they could produce fire hotter than the old dragon’s.
“You clearly don’t know enough about them. Otherwise, you’d have done something worse than teleporting them to places like that. Well, except the bureaucrat – I am kind of worried about him.” Timmy winced. Several rats had been with Gerald. Hopefully, they had made the trip too. If they had, then Gerald should be fine. If they hadn’t, Timmy needed to get a move on because Gerald wasn’t exactly stellar at saving himself.
“Your overconfidence amazes me,” Merton grumbled. “But even if they survive the pits, they shall still have to deal with the Lords of Magic who rule those areas. I can assure you they will not survive.” Merton sneered. “But perhaps I should not be surprised. Lord Riven has told me a lot about you, and there are not many men who could reanimate a kraken on such short notice.” The chamber shook, and Merton made a disgusted sound. “That damnable thing is still causing a disaster outside. The repair bill will be astronomical. Nevertheless, we’ll deal with it quickly once we’ve handled you and your friends. I imagine that killing you ought to put a stop to it.”
Timmy was careful to maintain his confident expression, but the mention of Lord Riven troubled him. The name was familiar. If it were the man he was thinking of, that would mean trouble, especially if he ran into Katie. His hands tightened ever so slightly on his shovel. Katie would be fine. Old Man was with her. Right now, he needed to focus on Merton. “Oh, you’re welcome to try, but you won’t be killing me, not today.”
“Really? The man with a shovel is already proclaiming his victory.” Merton laughed. “Ludicrous. What are you going to do? Bash me over the head with your shovel?”
“Technically, it’s a magical shovel, and I do plan to bash you over the head with it.” Timmy pointed his shovel at Merton. “And to paraphrase someone I know, that’s not all I’m going to do. I’m going to kick your ass first.”
“Bold words, necromancer, but you only have half a dozen of your zombies. You will never reach me. This entire room is under my control. There is nowhere for you to hide, and nothing in here to help you. All I need to do is land a single attack, and this fight will be over. I wonder how long you’d last if I teleported you to the bottom of the ocean. Wouldn’t that be amusing?”
“I’d be worried if you could actually do it. After all, if you could, why didn’t you do it to begin with?”
It was small, barely noticeable, but Merton flinched. Timmy smiled inwardly. He’d faced mages who could teleport things before, but never one as powerful as Merton. But this kind of magic always came with limitations. Merton had to be powerful – he’d teleported all of them at the same time – but why hadn’t he killed them outright? The odds were that his ability to teleport things hinged on several factors. The trap they’d glimpsed was a giveaway. He most likely needed to hit pe
ople with his magic to teleport them, and the fact that he’d teleported them to what sounded like specially designed pits suggested that he could probably only teleport people to predetermined locations. It was a big assumption, but those locations were most likely limited to a certain distance. He would have to test it, but Timmy had a feeling that unless Merton had a chance to charge up his magic or something similar, his range was similar to the size of the island. It was definitely formidable but far from invincible.
“I’ll wipe the smile off your face,” Merton said.
“I’m not trying to smile,” Timmy replied. “This is how my face usually looks.”
“We’ll see about that.”
The air in front of Merton shimmered, and Timmy readied himself. If he concentrated, he could just make out an oval-shaped blur in the air in front of the other mage. It was most likely a portal of some kind, one which teleported objects that ran into it – or that it ran into. Merton gestured, and the portal rushed forward. Timmy threw himself to the side and rolled away to get more distance. His zombies scattered as well, but he allowed one of them to get hit. It would be a sacrifice to help him learn more about Merton’s magic.
As he expected, the zombie vanished for a split-second. When his magic reconnected to it, it was falling into a pit of spikes. Merton hadn’t lied. There actually was a pit full of spikes. On the upside, his zombie hadn’t seen Gerald down there, so unless there was another pit full of spikes, Gerald must have made it out of there safely. It also reassured him. If Merton tried to kill him with something like that, Timmy should be able to survive since a pit full of spikes would not be enough to kill him, especially a pit whose sides were lined in stone that was not protected from his earth magic.
But the situation was still far from ideal. Even if Timmy wasn’t killed, he couldn’t afford to get hit. Merton was probably the last line of defence for the Eye, and he could simply be fighting for time. Merton must have alerted the Eternal Empire by now. The Eternal Empire’s sky knights – knights who rode giant eagles – would be here within hours. Timmy and the others might have even less time if the Eternal Empire had someone capable of long-distance teleportation with large groups of people. Timmy was reasonably sure they could handle the other Lords of Magic on the island, but the Eternal Empire had other mages strong enough to give even Avraniel pause, and they had to be on their way too. Timmy had to beat Merton and claim the Eye to win, but Merton could win by simply forcing a stalemate or drawing the battle out long enough for his reinforcements to arrive.
Timmy’s jaw clenched. He’d underestimated Merton. The other man might talk too much, but that didn’t mean he was an idiot. Merton might even have planned his speech as yet another way to waste Timmy’s time. Yes, Merton might have blustered a lot at the start, but his bluster had only bought him more time. But why would Merton teleport him here? Timmy’s eyes widened. Of course, Merton had already told him. The kraken wouldn’t last long if Merton managed to kill or incapacitate him, and once the kraken went down, the island’s remaining forces should be able to overwhelm Travers and the others. Merton wanted to handle Timmy himself to make sure that he was handled properly.
“My zombie didn’t fare very well against your pit,” Timmy said as he got back to his feet and raised his shovel. “But you’ll need to do a lot better to get rid of me.”
He reached into his pocket and flicked a pebble into the air. The movement caught Merton’s attention immediately, and Timmy hit the pebble with his shovel. That alone would have propelled the pebble toward Merton at considerable speed, but with his magic to accelerate and guide it, the pebble reached a speed that even James would have been impressed by. Heck, this was a trick Timmy was hoping to surprise James with one day. But the pebble never reached Merton. It vanished into another shimmer in front of the mage. Interesting. Merton had summoned the portal incredibly quickly since it definitely hadn’t been there before.
“An ingenious tactic,” Merton murmured. “You used earth magic to accelerate and harden the pebble, turning it into a potentially lethal projectile. Very good.” He chuckled, and his eyes bored into Timmy. “But, as you said, you’ll need to do a lot better to get rid of me. You’ll never reach me with something so weak.”
“I guess I’ll have to get closer then.” Timmy nodded at his zombies. “Or they will. This chamber isn’t that big.”
“Go ahead and try.” Merton smiled thinly. “It won’t work.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Timmy scoffed. “People always say that, and my zombies always get the job done, one way or another.”
Timmy split off two of his zombies. He only had a limited number, so he needed to be careful. If he ran out of zombies before he learned enough to beat Merton’s magic, he would be in trouble. It was at times like this that he really missed Gerald. The other man had some more of his zombie stored away. Come to think of it, he hoped Gerald would remember them although, in all likelihood, he would probably panic and forget. At least these zombies were some of his best. They were faster than any normal zombie could hope to be and far more agile. They’d put Merton’s magic to the test.
With a speed that most people would have been unable to keep up with, the two zombies raced toward Merton, cutting different paths across opposite sides of the chamber. But the other mage was up to the task. Two portals formed and rushed toward the zombies. The zombies dodged, twisting away with unnatural agility. The portals vanished, and two more formed and shot toward the zombies, only to miss as well.
“You seem to be having trouble,” Timmy taunted. Oh, Merton had to be holding back, but Timmy needed to push him into revealing more before he truly committed to an attack.
“Trouble? I’m only getting started.” The air in front of Merton ruptured, seething like boiling water, and more portals appeared. They lanced through the air like arrows from a bow. Instead of ovals, they were now much thinner, like arrows or spears. The zombies dodged the first two, but the portals were moving far more quickly than before. One of the zombies got hit. It landed in the shark pit and was promptly devoured. However, the other zombie continued its headlong charge. It reached Merton and raised its sword – only to be swallowed up by a portal on the floor. Timmy concentrated. There were fourteen portals floating in the air around Merton, another one had hit one of his zombies, and another one had appeared on the floor. There were thus a total of sixteen portals – which was a lot of portals.
More troubling was how Merton could change the shape of his portals, which also changed their properties. The more surface area they had, the slower they seemed to move. But those thinner, arrow-like portals had been much, much faster, and they’d had a similar effect to the oval-shaped portals. Just being hit was enough to get teleported. Merton had also shown that he could create portals on the floor, and Timmy was willing to bet that he could do the same thing to the walls, ceiling, and pillars. He chuckled mirthlessly and glanced down at the floor beneath him. He’d have to be even more careful now although all of the portals Merton had made so far had started off close to him.
Merton’s magic was perfect for defence. However, Timmy had also noticed that the amount of magic in each of the portals he’d seen so far was less than in the one Avraniel had triggered. Merton must have needed more magic to teleport larger objects or more people, which made sense. These portals seemed limited to either a single large object or perhaps a group of smaller objects.
“Was that the best you could do?” Merton asked. He even had the audacity to waggle one finger at Timmy like a schoolteacher chastising an unruly child. Timmy found himself grinning. It was a bad habit to have – he knew a necromancer who’d lost a finger doing that to an unruly zombie. “Your friends are dead, and you are not going to win this.”
“You talk more than an old necromancer,” Timmy replied. “And stop saying my friends are dead. You should be more worried about your fellow Lords of Magic. And that? That wasn’t close to the best I can do.” Timmy wasn’t normally one to talk so much in a figh
t, especially when he needed to win quickly, but the last thing he needed was for Merton to try overwhelming him with portals. If he could keep the other mage talking, keep him thinking that the situation was under control and that he had the upper hand, then Timmy might be able to learn enough to win.
He reached into his pockets again. The pouch of sand he’d brought was a gift a friend of his and Vicky’s – Emily – had put together. She was the same person who made the potions he carried around in case of an emergency, and she was also the granddaughter of Mike the corpse dealer. Rather than go into the family business, she had been Vicky’s student for a time, an accomplished healer and apothecary, but she still knew a thing or two about how to fit a lot of things into a very small space. The pouch she’d given him held far more sand than its appearance suggested. “Let’s see how you handle this.”
He opened the pouch and thrust his shovel forward. A sandstorm filled the chamber.
“I see. You intend to blind me while you attack with your other zombies.” Merton chortled. “You are getting desperate, aren’t you?”
Timmy was far from desperate. Desperate described how he’d felt when his master had thrown him into a pit full of hungry baby hydras with only a wooden stick. Timmy had been eight years old then, and he’d been lucky to get out of the pit alive. Like that fight, this fight wasn’t one he could win if he fought fairly. His magic simply didn’t match up well against Merton’s. Someone like Old Man who could also teleport would do better, and Avraniel could easily have filled the entire chamber with fire. Timmy’s biggest advantage was that he hadn’t given away a lot of information about his magic. If he could find a weakness to exploit before Merton committed fully to an attack, he could still win.
Two Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire (The Unconventional Heroes Series Book 3) Page 46
