Shades of Light

by Justin Sloan

  ***

  Rhona knew Alastar’s focus was completely on keeping his healing powers on her so that he couldn’t divert his attention elsewhere. The others were doing their best against another sorcerer who had shown up, battling Donnon with fire, but mostly, it was Master Irdin pushing with ice, only Rhona’s shadows catching the magic and making it vanish into the darkness before finding their marks.

  “You all are like children playing with powers you don’t understand!” Master Irdin shouted as he twisted his hands, and the volume of his attacks doubled.

  “Then it’s going to be pretty damn embarrassing for you when we kick your arse,” Gordon shouted, catching a wave of ice and turning it into water before hurling it back at them in a torrent that tossed one sorcerer to the ground and disrupted a fire attack.

  Master Irdin shouted in frustration and stepped forward again, forming a complicated pattern with his hands before him and closing his eyes. Winds howled, and the sky turned red and purple as clouds of ice swirled above their heads, but Rhona and her friends stepped forward, all in a line, prepared to counter his attack. As one, they pushed forward with their war cry, and the magic spells met and clashed in the middle.

  Rhona was using all of her power, everything in her with the help of Alastar’s magic to give her focus, while at her side, Estair, Donnon, Gordon, and even Kia focused, all eyes clouded over as their hands moved in circles and magic flowed from their bodies. They were giving it their all, and still, this sorcerer managed to hold them off, the opposing magics crashing in the middle, seeming to tear a door between their world and some other dimension.

  Then it all went silent, and for a moment, it seemed they would all be dead, and none of it would matter anymore.

  With a bang that threw them all back onto their butts, magic exploded all about them, scorching the grass and trees and, at the same time, covering everything in ice. Parts of the ground vanished, eaten up by shadow.

  Wodain pushed himself up, staring at it all in horror, and then his eyes went white. The land vanished, and in its place lakes of flame rose up, spirits like demons surging upward for the attack.

  But Alastar was there, ready. He closed his eyes to ignore all of this and charged forward.

  For an instant, his fairy of light appeared again, guiding his sword, and then it found its mark. The blade impaled the evil mystic through the chest, and the fire and demons vanished as the man’s eyes returned to normal. He collapsed to the ground, eyes fading to a dark gray as he stared blankly into the sky.

  Master Irdin stumbled forward, clearly drained from his use of magic. Rhona was glad to see he wasn’t as invincible and all powerful as he appeared to be.

  Alastar pulled his sword free and pushed himself up. Rhona found her footing, stumbled slightly, but regained her footing and stayed focused on Master Irdin. Gordon and Estair were there, too, all advancing.

  Master Irdin’s eyes darted to each of them, then to his dead mystic and witch, along with the dead sorcerer at the edge of their fight.

  “This won’t be the end,” he said, his mouth frothing and eyes going wild. “We’re too strong for even you, and when the wave crashes down upon you, this day will be the day you’ll look back on and wish you’d met death.”

  Rhona led the charge, but with a fluid motion, Master Irdin lifted his hands into the air, and the last of his sorcerers appeared at his side and grabbed his arm. As his eyes turned black and a crack of wind flared their robes out behind them, the two vanished.

  Alastar’s sword found empty space, and he shouted.

  Rhona spun, searching for any sign of them, but the others stood, chests heaving, and Donnon held his daughter close as a smile crept across his face.

  “They’re gone,” Donnon said. “Maybe just for now, but today… we’ve won.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “The remnant still roam our lands,” Rhona said. She stumbled over to Kia, resting a hand on her back and leaning against Donnon to rest her head on his shoulder. “And who knows when Master Irdin, or this bigger power he speaks of, will return.”

  “After the skills I just saw,” Donnon squeezed her hand, “I’d have to say that they’ll have a fight ahead of ‘em if they show their faces here.”

  “Damn right,” Rhona said with an exhausted laugh.

  “The remnant will be in a frenzy, I’d reckon,” Estair said. “And whatever force the sorcerer talked about, part of some dark society or whatever it was… It’s going to push us to our limits.”

  Alastar sheathed his sword, hands still trembling from the excitement of the fight. “When they return, we’ll be ready.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Rhona asked, familiar with that look in his eyes that meant he had a plan.

  “We’re going after the Sword of Light, so that the paladins will unite under me. When the King of Gulanri lends his support, there might be an alliance with the clans. When the Lost Isles stand united, no force will pose a threat.”

  “It’s settled then,” Estair said, and to Rhona’s surprise, the lady wrapped her arms around Alastar, and they kissed. That deserved some questions, but these were the type of questions that could wait.

  Gordon cleared his throat. “The people of Roneland need to know.”

  “What?”

  “They have to be told what’s coming, so they can prepare,” Gordon continued. “We must return and warn them. At least, some of us.”

  “Including me and my daughter,” Donnon said. When Rhona turned to him, he averted his gaze for a moment, then turned back to her with determination.

  “What do you mean?” Rhona asked.

  “I only just got my Kia back,” he said, squeezing his daughter tight. “I’m in no position to take her to Sair Talem, and could never live with myself if I left her behind.”

  Everything in Rhona made her want to argue with him, especially the part that longed to have his arms around her, comforting her at night before drifting off to sleep. But instead, she said, “You’ll be here when we come back?”

  “I’ll rally the clans, set up defenses, and protect my daughter.”

  “I don’t need protection,” Kia said. But she held tight to him and didn’t argue further.

  Rhona bit her lip in frustration, but then leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, before looking at the others and nodding.

  “We’ll all ride back,” she said. “It wasn’t so far, and we must ensure you arrive safely. We’ll regroup, stock up for the longer journey, and then set off for Sair Talem.”

  She turned to Alastar, expecting him to protest and insist that they head off now, but he simply nodded.

  “It’s settled then,” she said. “For the protection of our lands.”

  “For the protection of the Lost Isles, and the lands beyond,” Estair said.

  Gordon nodded, and Alastar clumsily climbed onto his white horse. Rhona joined him, and Kia rode with her father. Soon, they were on their way back to Layla and the village of Clan Lockmire.

  It was quite different, riding on a horse and watching the sun rise over the hills to the east. Soon, the green, rolling hills went from nearly black to being scattered with long shadows and a glow of orange.

  “Where did you learn to ride, brother?” she asked as he clucked his tongue and maneuvered the horse to turn toward the village gates.

  He laughed. “Oh, this horse is guiding us more than anything else. She’s being kind, for the first time this night.”

  Rhona patted the horse’s flank and said, “Good girl. Maybe she just likes me more than she likes you?”

  “You know,” Alastar grumbled, “I don’t doubt that in the slightest.”

  They soon found the one called Layla, and introduced Rhona. They passed off the horses, briefly telling her what all had happened, and then she showed them to rooms where they could sleep.

  “You understand, don’t you?” Donnon asked, holding his daughter close as they turned to follow the path to their hut. “I… I’ll be s
etting up defenses, and waiting for you. But if you don’t want to go, if you’d rather stay here…?”

  Kia looked up at her, that same look of hope that was in her father’s eyes, but Rhona shook her head.

  “My brother will need me,” she said. “If my magic is as powerful as you all keep telling me, then the people of the Lost Isles need me.”

  He nodded. “I know. But I’ll miss you.”

  Kia ran forward and threw her arms around Rhona, burying her face in her shirt. “Hurry back.”

  Rhona pulled her back and tilted the girl’s chin up. “I will. Your father’s a great man, he’ll protect you.”

  Kia laughed. “Or I’ll protect him.”

  “Or we’ll protect each other,” Donnon said, joining the two for another hug. Rhona was going to miss them, but at the same time, she thought it was nice to have someone to come back to and a reason to fight. She was going to do damn well everything in her power to bring this land to peace.

  ***

  Alastar curled up in his bed, mind racing with the thoughts of everything he and Rhona had been through in such a short amount of time. They would never be the same, that was certain.

  He rolled over, ready to close his eyes, when a form startled him. His hand shot out for his sword, but the figure leaped through the darkness, caught him by the wrist, and then lunged forward to press her lips to his mouth.

  When she pulled back, he could see by the slight golden glow in his startled eyes that it was Estair. The light added shadows that made her lips appear even more tempting than usual.

  “You nearly caused my heart to explode,” he said, sighing with relief to see her.

  “Is that a corny romantic thing to say, or… like literally?” she asked, pushing him back onto the bed and straddling him.

  “I meant it literally, but now that you mention it…”

  She put a finger to his lips. “Shhh, I don’t like corny.”

  He grinned and was about to make a corny joke, when she leaned in and kissed him again, hips pressing into his, and she took his wrists and held them beside his head.

  “You sure you’re ready for this?” she asked, pausing with her lower lip barely brushing against his.

  He hesitated, falling back to that place where he felt comfortable. He had taken his vows, but then again…

  “We’re about to ride off to an island known for its ghosts, covered in remnant, all so that we can find a mystical item no one has found before. Then we’ll ride back to try and unite the lands against an army of sorcerers and who knows what. Yet, in spite of all that, lying here with you on top of me is the most terrifying of all.”

  She laughed and leaned in, her warm breath tickling the side of his neck, and whispered, “I’ll take that as a very weird aye.”

  His eyes went wide as her lips met his again, and then he wrapped his arms around her, running one hand through her hair as he lost himself in the moment.

  If the rest of their journey was going to be anything like this, he couldn’t wait.

  Author Notes - Justin Sloan

  May 19, 2017

  My love of fantasy books dates back to my mother reading The Hobbit to me as a child, then later when I drew and wrote my own comics (fantasy) when I was ten. My love of magic was burning strong then, and it has only been fed more fuel as the years went on.

  Now I am able to be part of the biggest thing to hit the market ever--I hope. The Age of Magic is a series that started with Michael Anderle partnering with CM Raymond and Lee Barbant. They created the Rise of Magic books within the Age of Magic, and since invited authors such as PT Hytlon, Brandon Barr, and me (among others) to write in this world. I mention these two named because I am a huge fan of both of their other fantasy series, and have been reading their Age of Magic books and LOVING them.

  These are going to be fun books, some approaching a different part of this world, some crossing over, and some with spinoff characters from others. And what else is cool -- they're all part of the Kurtherian Gambit Universe (KGU), along with my other KGU series, Reclaiming Honor.

  I read the first books in this new magic series and loved them. When approaching the idea of what I could contribute, I thought it would be a lot of fun to explore what used to be the UK, especially the Scotland area, but in this world FAR FAR FAR in the future, where magic exists and so much has changed, it's almost unrecognizable. Why here? One reason is that my great grandparents came over to the US from Scotland, and I used to play the bagpipes. That should be enough! But also because I just love this area. I did a short story about King Arthur as a vampire, and hope to develop that into a series someday, but in the meantime want to write more about this area and have an excuse to do research. Also, my other fantasy series took place in an area very similar to Ancient Greece, so I thought it would be great to have a series in a much more typical fantasy setting.

  But most of all, these books are about characters for me. And I love Rhona and Alastar. I hope you're with me on this, because I have a lot more of them coming. You'll also see some cool connections to the books PT is doing (pay attention to those Storm Raiders mentioned several times in this book -- they'll come into play, I promise). So be sure to go grab his book (and the rest).

  A huge thanks to Michael Anderle, CM Raymond, and Lee Barbant. It's going to be a blast, and I'm so happy these guys will be there for the ride.

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  May 19, 2017

  First, thank you for blessing us by reading this book and NOW you are reading these author notes as well!

  I’m going to riff off of Justin’s author notes a bit when I say that my first memory isn’t the Hobbit (that was much later) but rather Dungeon’s and Dragons.

  And Magic Users!

  I have to admit that I HATED the fact that my magic user could only roll 1d4 (1-4) points of health, couldn’t wear decent armor and was basically a wimp. I wanted my magic user to be BAD ASS, but no amount of playing fast and loose with the rules really allowed me to roll a new, bad ass magic user.

  It truly sucked.

  Mind you I understand the why of it right now, but it doesn’t appeal to me to roll up a wimpy-dimpy person to this day.

  I guess I’ll just have to write my own series where we skip that part. Just ask the local Dungeon Master to hand me that level 15 character and some gold and we will call it good.

  Then, World Of Warcraft happened a decade ago and they fixed that slow rise to becoming more powerful and it only took grinding through a computer game to do it.

  I was HOOKED.

  Then life happened, kids and other things and I quite WOW (World of Warcraft) but I never quite loving fantasy. When I worked with LE Barbant (he is the world guy for the team of CM Raymond and LE Barbant) to explain how the Age of Magic was going to work, we had a blast working out the science behind the magic. It is predicated on two concepts:

  1) Arthur C. Clarke’s 3rd Law - Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

  2) E=MC^2 - Although there are a LOT of ways of explaining this, it boils down that energy is equal to the mass of an object (matter) and C^2 is the proportionality constant, equal to the speed of light in a vacuum squared.

  At the end of all of this wonderful sciency stuff, many of the humans (read most) don’t realize that their magical powers are a construct of the Kurtherian Nanites infused in their bodies, now.

  At the end of all of these stories (Age of Magic and Age of Expansion), we will have a final Kurtherian showdown and those Kurtherians millennia ago are going to find out what happens when you give Humans abilities they should never have.

  I hope we do you, the readers, justice.

  Now, this Author is going back to writing my next Michael Book. I’m about 8 chapters from completion, and hope the fans enjoy it!

  Thank you SO MUCH for trying out our stories, and making our lives changed from your input, your support and your reading.

  Michael Anderle

&
nbsp; Justin Sloan Social

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  Stories By Justin Sloan

  CURSED NIGHT

  Hounds of God

  Hounds of Light

  FALLS OF REDEMPTION (Trilogy)

  Land of Gods

  Retribution Calls

  Tears of Devotion

  RECLAIMING HONOR (A Kurtherian Gambit Series)

  Justice is Calling (Audiobook available)

  Claimed By Honor (Audiobook available)

  Judgment has Fallen (Audiobook coming)

  Angel of Reckoning (Audiobook coming)

  MODERN NECROMANCY (Trilogy)

  Death Marked

  Death Bound