The Circle of Duty

by Owen Elgie

  Nodding my thanks to The Elder I turned to face the others.

  “We’re all ready for what we need. We’re all kitted out to fight and we all have the weapons to do what we need to.” Serious faces remained. “Look, when you actually look at how our fighting takes place, all the armour, all the ceremony, all of it shows that we haven’t moved on. When it really gets down to the bare bones of the point, all we need is ourselves and our magic. We’re all either Dragons or wizards, why do we need the armour? We are all we’re going to need now, so let’s go and save one of our own and give Leatherpants the kicking he deserves.”

  Em smiled and brought that sword pommel of hers into her hand. Mike, Mark and Hairy cracked knuckles, necks and who knew what else as they brought their power up to readiness. Following them, we all headed back into the room. Andrea was quick to join me but she didn’t have words of encouragement.

  “We are merely allowing them time to complete their plan. The correct course of action for us here would have been to destroy the site. The delay here could be fatal to millions of people, those people we’re sworn to protect.”

  “I know we’re taking a risk but the population of the planet begins with that one person. I won’t let Maria just be forgotten under the guise of the wider picture. Besides, the Tayne are most likely there as well. I told the Queen that I was going to bring her subjects back to her.”

  The expression on her face showed that consideration of the Tayne had been furthest from her thoughts. There was no more time for argument so without any further words, I brought the Cascade Bridge to Gobekle Tepe into existence as The Elder took hers back to China. I was aiming to arrive some way from the location itself so as not to alert anyone to our presence, rescue Maria before the power-mad Leatherpants could do what he was going to and get us all out without any further loss of life. Taking a deep breath, I led the team, my team, through.

  It was a clear, cloudless sky as we came through and we were surrounded by open land in all directions. The sunlight meant we had less risk of being seen due to the glow of the Bridge but it also meant that we were going to be more likely to meet locals who were out and about doing their normal day to day activities. Happily, I’d included a healthy piece of solitude in the construction of the Cascade which had meant we’d been delivered to a delightful spot in the middle of nowhere.

  Around us were rolling hills and very little in the way of anything else. “Where are we?” Andrea was still impatient.

  “I don’t know exactly but we’re close enough.” Positivity as always.

  “We could have used a map but you left all of The Banus Stones with the crystal shards back in Wales. Not a good start.” Andrea was really impatient now and I could see that even Mike was noticing the change in her.

  I puffed out a resigned sigh and was about to bridge jump back to pick up the ancient map when Em spoke.

  “The power from The Drake Stone is in that direction,” and she held out her arm to signal off to the west of where we were standing. Her eyes were narrowed as if in concentration and judging by the power which was running in tiny patterns all over her suit, she was working hard to make that determination.

  She relaxed her effort and the purple power on her suit winked out. She drew a breath and began walking off in the direction she’d just identified, knowing that each of the rest of us were going to be hot on her heels. Andrea huffed but joined the rest of us. I needed to at least attempt some kind of reconciliation with her.

  “You’ve done this more than I have,” I started, trying to remain as conversational as I could for fear of stoking the newly kindled fires within her. “How long are we likely to have to complete this before The Elder does her thing?” Andrea remained staring ahead as she walked and I could feel the boiling heat of her anger even without the aid of my own magical ability.

  “The Elder will be attempting to bring the powers together on her own rather than with any other members of The Circle so it is likely that it will take hours rather than minutes as it would usually. Probably should have considered that before deciding that this was the correct course of action.” She was biting with every comment and there seemed to be nothing I was going to be able to do against it.

  “Thank you my lady. I will have to make sure we hurry.” I gave as stock a reply as I could and just left her be.

  We walked briskly for close to an hour, each of us doing our best to hurry while also looking as nonchalant as we could should any locals see us, before Em finally signaled we were approaching our destination. I’d been getting more than a little concerned that we were just going to burn all of the time that The Elder was giving us to affect the rescue, just arriving at the location. Em pointed ahead indicating that the low sound we could all recognize coming from beyond the far off hills was the target we were here to intercept.

  “What’s our next step? We are running short of our allotted time.” Andrea asked angrily, showing she’d been having the same thought.

  “Now,” I started my response, doing my best to just stay focused on the job at hand. The last thing I needed was to have everyone see me react to Andrea’s very obvious misgivings about my ideas. “We need to see what their up to. I need to get close to them as quickly as I can without being seen. Lady Messenger, can you assist me with this task please?” I’d hoped that by addressing Em in the more formal title would at least make Andrea see that we were all on the same side. Her grimace showed it hadn’t worked. Thinking quickly, I added,

  “Can you help us with this task please?”

  Em just nodded her agreement, understanding what I was asking, before adding, “Everyone will need to be very close to me as we approach the site. I will only be able to cast my concealment so far and with this number of us it could become very crowded within the shell. We must also be aware that this place will be very different to the house in Argentina. When Mr. Johns and I moved through that estate, we weren’t running the risk of tripping any form of magical trip wire. Here, there is a real possibility that Mr. Ward will have countermeasures in place for this kind of approach.” It was a somber thought but needed saying.

  “I thought you said that all of the planning of what we’re going to find has been based around the old tactics of The Circle and that we would be able to be victorious by doing something unexpected?” It was Mike asking but he’d only just beaten Andrea to it. At least he’d made the question seem interested rather than accusatory.

  “We can’t assume anything at all. All of the evidence suggests that I’m right in what’s going to happen but I can’t guarantee anything.” Again, I had to admit that there was a chance that I was going to be found out to be wrong and we were all going to be on the wrong side of this fight. But that chance didn’t mean that we were.

  “I know that we’re all going to walk into a fight and that there’s a good chance that we’re going to be beaten. Leatherpants has shown that he has been able to out-think everything about all of us but now we’re ready to go outside his experience. This is going to be our best chance.” My voice wanted to crack so badly but I managed to keep the rod of surety pressed firmly in place, even if I didn’t feel as confident as I was sounding. I just couldn’t let my fear out.

  Everyone nodded and closed in around Em. The violet light of her power sparked into the familiar trails over her suit and that familiar weight of her power enveloped us, rendering us invisible and intangible to those who may stumble on us.

  Moving as fast as we dared, it took us eleven minutes to reach the top of the nearest hill to the site of Gobekle Tepe, formerly the stronghold of Bress Tal.

  What greeted us was quite startling.

  The valley below us fell gently down towards what looked like a writhing and swelling grey sea. Waves of energy frolicked through the surface of whatever we were all looking at and moved all over the entire valley floor. It was only as I focused my attention on a specific area of the swelling sea that I could make out the constituent parts and I recognized the
bodies of emaciated Tayne filling this whole valley. They all seemed to be moving with a singular energy, creating motion as if part of a much greater whole. Gone were the much larger creatures we’d seen in the caverns in Mexico but we were now face to face with a very concerning fact. They may have been back to their more familiar form of the playground weakling but they would be more than able to overwhelm us just by sheer weight on numbers. Yet another reason that Leatherpants had chosen this race as the ones to bring onto his side of the fight.

  Em hadn’t stopped her forward momentum as my mind had been working and we began our decent down the hillside towards the mass of bodies. I couldn’t see anything beyond the wall of creatures so wasn’t sure where we were heading.

  “Can anyone see anything ahead? Can we see more than just the Tayne?”

  Em’s response was almost reassuring.

  “The location of the power in this valley is coming from directly below the central point of the Tayne. I am heading in that direction. It did seem to be the quickest way to reach our goal.”

  She was right but that didn’t stop me feeling as if I’d just had a very basic point explained to me. Somehow, I’d managed to lead us into the fight but had quickly been overtaken in terms of the details. That just made me worry that maybe the experience of the others in The Circle was more valuable than I’d given it credit. In any case, it was too late for doubts.

  We all continued on, shrouded by the magics Em had at her disposal, down into the valley, easing into the Tayne as easily as we would have walked into the sea, passing through their bodies without them having any kind of awareness of us. The sensation of sickness which had come when Em and I had passed through the doorway in the mansion in Argentina was missing this time. I could only assume that this was down to the fact that the Tayne were far from being the same level of power, even in their current numbers.

  Internal cross-sections of bodies passed us by with each step and soon our tiny little bubble of power was totally submerged in the fleshy mass.

  “How much further do we have to go?” Andrea was impatient and I could recognize on her an expression of desire to cut loose and start fighting. I could recognize it as something which I’d worn on more than one occasion as I waited on the edge of unfurling my own Dragon form but it wasn’t something I was familiar seeing on her. Of all of my traits for her to pick up.

  “We are almost at the focal point of the energy on the surface,” responded Em, again just answering the question on face value, but her voice was shaking slightly. I risked a slight glance at her and saw that the effort of what she was doing was starting to really push her reserves. The energy surged all over her suit and judging by the huge number of competing vapor trails snaking all over her, she was having to really push hard to be able to take us all through the Tayne bodies while maintaining the shell. More time constraints.

  “The surface?” Mike asked.

  “I can feel the power coming from ahead but its true location is beneath us. When we reach the centre of the valley, we will have to break through to whatever is beneath us.” The exertion remained but her tone remained as matter of fact as it had ever been.

  Em was true to her word and within another minute she signaled for us all to stop moving.

  “We are now at the lowest point of the valley. The Drake Stone is below us, still another,” she closed her eyes to concentrate, “eight hundred meters below us, and a little to the left of our current position.”

  “Excellent. Can you ‘phase’ us through the ground like you’ve been doing with the Tayne?” Time for me to take some level of control again.

  She wiped the sheen of perspiration from her forehead and closed her eyes again, power again bursting to life on her clothing. The shell we were all enclosed within began to sink into the ground, blades of flattened grass suddenly clear of the magics being wielded and inside Em’s boundary. The upper surface of the dome lowered as well.

  But we didn’t.

  The space above us rapidly decreased as the shell penetrated the ground but we weren’t going with it. Instead we were trapped on the surface with the power Em was using closing in to squash us.

  “WAIT! WAIT!” It was Andrea’s voice and there was a clear tolling of desperation despite her still evident anger. Thankfully, Em listened.

  “You aren’t taking us through. You’re going to kill us all like this. What’s wrong with you?” I could feel the accusation from Andrea as a sharp blade and couldn’t be sure that what she’d said hadn’t been, at least in part, aimed at me.

  Em took a long breath and brought the shell back up from the ground and settled back into the position it had been in, though I swear that as it came to rest, at least one of the Tayne in the swarm outside registered some level of awareness of us, and turned to stare very hard in our direction. I had to put that fear out of my head. We were who knew how deep in these creatures and Em was the one standing between them and us. What was wrong with her?

  “You OK?” I asked, hoping that there was nothing more wrong than a mis-judgement of the number of bodies she was being asked to transport. Her response was far from encouraging.

  “We are too many. It is too much for me to complete. I cannot phase us all through the ground to the cavern below.” Her teeth were gritted and now I was really looking at her, it was clear that she was straining hard against the casting. Another Tayne turned their attention towards us. I still knew that inside this construct that we were all totally gone from the reality outside but if Em was getting tired, what then?

  “Don’t worry, I’ll blast us in.” Time was against us so a decisive move was called for. Taking a deep breath and raising my hands above my head, despite the cramped conditions, I prepared to bring down a hammer blow of energy and break us a way down. Andrea grabbed at my hands and shoved a hand over my mouth, breaking my concentration.

  “You can’t just punch everything,” she snarled, her anger still boiling under the surface. “We do that and all element of surprise is lost. This small a team needs surprise, remember?” I had to concentrate. I’d made the big play about doing things differently but as is always the case, it’s very easy to suggest different ways when you haven’t actually got to deliver on what you suggest.

  “Good point. Em, can you take us back to the surface of these Tayne and bring us through in smaller groups? Two’s and three’s instead of the whole group at once?” Em swallowed against the effort before replying but it was Andrea who spoke.

  “We are against the time it will take The Elder to bring together the power needed to destroy this whole area. Taking several trips is hardly productive is it?” Her voice was a severe blast of frozen air and her eyes had glazed their translucent Dragon tone. Even as she breathed at us, frosty clouds billowing, it was clear that she was losing control.

  “We need to stay focused on the job at hand. I need all of us to work together. Andrea, whatever it is I‘ve done that’s making you this angry at me, you’re just going to have to put it aside until this is finished. Look at the big picture will you?”

  The words stung her like a slap to the face, they were a direct and blatant rebuke before all of the members of this team and that simmering anger of hers split the surface. Her fists balled and were rapidly encased in massive chunks of ice which she then started to swing wildly in my direction. Everyone dived for cover, as much as they could within the confines of the magical sphere Em was still holding together.

  “You are such a risk to us all,” she screamed as she plunged onto me, smashing those massive blocks of heavy ice down with no care for the consequences. I knew that this wasn’t her, that there was something more going on so I couldn’t risk anyone coming to my aid and causing this ager to escalate any further.

  “Leave her be everyone, she’s just venting. I’m OK.” Nobody moved so they must have heard me so I was left with nothing but my own defence as the appropriate response. “You are causing just the disharmony for us that it has been feared.”
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br />   Em was the only member of our team who was still standing but her posture and visage showed that she was now really struggling to maintain the shell we were surrounded by. Beads of sweat which had broken out on her forehead were now becoming almost constantly pouring rivulets of water and the pulses of violet power which chased themselves around her suit as she controlled the energies at her disposal were now looking far from the ordered and controlled flashes of brilliance they usually were. Instead they were jagged and dim.

  As Andrea continued to vent her anger, I could make out a terrifying extra detail behind and all around us. Whereas previously, the Tayne outside had been writhing and squirming over each other with next to no awareness of anything let alone specifically us, now though, they were all beginning to turn and move, to force themselves away from the magical shell until they’d formed a clearing of their own, all staring intently at us.

  I had to stop what Andrea was doing.

  Waiting for the first second when both of her hands were away from me, I lunged forward and up and took as tight a hold on her frozen maces as I could. She reacted in exactly the way I expected and her violence erupted even further, snapping against what was holding her as she battled to free herself.

  “Andrea. You have to stop this. You’re going to bring the shell apart. You have to calm yourself down. Just breathe.” It was all I could think to do. I couldn’t risk just attacking her, that would most likely just bring her Dragon fully out and that would mean death to most, if not all, of the people in here. For an achingly long time she just locked eyes with me and stared violence down at me. All movement ceased and all of her attention was brought down to a pinpoint on the end of my nose.

  “Do you think that I wish to be acting in this way? I do not understand this feeling but I can only react to it.” Her accent was still the same but her voice was changing, leaving her humanity to become the beast. She was losing it but she didn’t understand why.

  Why wouldn’t she know what was taking place? Why was she so willing to just erupt if she didn’t understand why she was doing it? I was still holding onto the ice blocks when she screamed again and brought even more ice into being around her fists, sealing my hands into the constructs.