I shared a speaking glance with Rena, who had listened with wide eyes. Vee could hold up a train car. By herself. Didn’t those things weigh like three hundred thousand pounds? Even if part of it was on the ground, that was an insane amount of weight. I didn’t see how anything that I did for her was remotely helpful but I responded, “You’re welcome. Anytime.”
Rena sidled up next to me to murmur in my ear, “I’m reminded all over again why I’m glad she’s on our side.”
“You and me both,” I whispered back fervently.
Our lull in minions didn’t last long. We had perhaps an hour, less than that, before they appeared again. Chi at least was happy, as he pumped a fist in the air and crowed, “Target rich environment!”
Bannen looked just as pleased. I swear, neither of them were good at being still.
We went back to fighting off the minor minions and I thinned them out as much as I dared. Of all people, I had to conserve my magic carefully because I had no idea how much I would need tomorrow, when we actually did face off Toh’sellor.
Reports came in via Yez about injuries on the other teams. We had three ‘walking injuries’ that consisted of a broken arm, bruised ribs, and a mild concussion. All three people were shuffled into different teams that could protect them while we continued forward. I knew, intellectually, that such injuries were mild and, considering the intensity of the fighting, we should have had much worse. I still didn’t like it. I barely knew every person’s name and face on these teams, but fighting out here, I felt a kinship to them. These were brothers in arms. I didn’t want any injuries at all.
Another wave of minions swept through, and I grimaced, bracing myself to deal with them if needed. I could feel people getting tired, see their uniforms soaked with sweat, and the quiet way they fought unnerved me. No one yelled or jested anymore, not like they had the first few hours; they just buckled in and fought with a grim determination to get through the day.
No, wait, I did hear someone yelling. Several someones. My head snapped around and I realized that one of the teams screamed in distress and anger, lurching forward.
“What’s happening?” Yez barked out. His jaw clenched as he got the report, eyes blazing. “Maksohm, one of our agents got yanked out of the shield. He’s surrounded by minions.”
I felt all of my blood drain south. No. Oh, no.
“Go!” Maksohm ordered, already turning that direction.
We wheeled with him, like a flock of birds, following his lead as he ran flat out. Every other team converged on the same point, battling the minions back, forcing them to give up their captive. My line of sight kept getting interrupted as various agents and familiars dove into the fray, fighting, snarling, pushing them back.
“Got him!” a harsh voice called out with vicious satisfaction.
Oh good. My heartbeat kept thudding and I put a hand against it, feeling like I could put my heart back in its rightful place again.
“HEALER NOW!” another person cried out.
Clearly, I spoke too soon.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a streak of black fur, and I recognized Jimbo and Sherri diving out of their own team’s protective shield and into the other’s, answering that call of distress. Not wanting her to be distracted, I turned and targeted as many minions as possible, clearing them out.
“Status,” Yez demanded, voice clipped, one hand cupping his mouthpiece. Whatever answer he got didn’t surprise him and he turned to Maksohm. “We need to make camp.”
“Our target area is right over this rise,” Maksohm responded, pointing dead ahead. “Can we relocate there? It will give us a better defensive station.”
Yez relayed this, listened to the response, then grunted an affirmative. “If we’re going, let’s be quick.”
We lost no time moving forward, and while tired, the teams moved with enraged efficiency in cutting down the minions so that we had no more disasters before the camp site came into sight. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding. The area looked like it had been a lake at some point, but the water had since retreated, leaving only a smooth basin and a rocky area around it. It looked like the perfect place to make camp. I half-wished the water had remained but then thought about that. “Would water be safe after exposure to Toh’sellor?”
Nora turned and gave me a strange look. “It’s not something we’ve tested. But would you really want to drink something that Toh’sellor has touched?”
My face screwed up. “Um, that’s not at all what I was wondering. Eww.”
Chi giggled, actually giggled, like a naughty school boy. “Oooh, can you imagine what effects it would have if you did? I wonder if you’d glow. Or turn green. Or—”
Our team leader turned with an exasperated look. “Chi, focus. Nora, can you carry the shield? I want to oversee the barrier being installed.”
“Of course,” Nora agreed.
Maksohm moved off, leaving us standing idly by. I watched with fascination as the first three mages stepped out of their team formations and set the cornerstones of the barrier, setting each point and connecting them smoothly. They did an expert job—not that I had expected any less—crafting the barrier around our heads in a round ball that extended down below the surface. I had suspected they would use the Globe Variation, considering what we now knew of Toh’sellor’s methods in maneuvering around barriers, but I still felt better seeing it. If we were protected from all sides, even below, I might actually manage some sleep tonight after all.
They had it up within minutes and I didn’t need Maksohm’s signal to know we were safe to step out of the shield and start making camp.
Almost immediately the Healers charged in, laying the wounded down and immediately tending to them, calling out orders for different things to be unpacked from the Mules first.
Setting up camp in enemy territory wasn’t much different from doing it out in a nice patch of woods, with a few exceptions. No gathering up of firewood (none to be had), locating a good water source (again, none to be had), and no wandering about camp investigating the site. But we had dedicated people in charge of cooking dinner over magically powered, portable stoves, and another group setting up a corner latrine with all of the appropriate privacy spells, so the rest of us set out our bedrolls and got comfortable. Really, all I saw people do was take off their jackets. We kept weapons and boots on, and I expected that to change only when people were ready to turn in and not a moment before.
“RENA!”
I hurried, as much as I could, following the frantic waves and calls of two agents with the Healer’s mark embroidered on their upper sleeves. As soon as I felt I could be heard, I yelled, “How bad?”
“Bad!” Sherri yelled back, not quite wringing her hands together, but only because Healers never showed just how lost they were. “Surface lesions of Toh’sellor’s energy, quickly going past the muscle layer and infecting the bloodstream. He’d already lost two fingers before I could get a stabilizing barrier around his hand; any more than this, he’s going to lose his arm. Ready to try that theoretical?”
Nothing like trial by fire to see if I could. Grimly, I reached the patient’s side, nudging his manticore familiar aside. The manticore did not seem impressed at all but shifted with only a slight grumble of protest.
I blinked into that magical oversight then went deeper than I normally indulged, tracing every single blood cell, every facet of the energy that penetrated this man’s dusky skin. Yes, there, pockets of malignant energy already feasting and burrowing in like a parasite. How interesting that the energy would react different to a living mammal than it would an inert object. Trammel and I would likely have a very interesting discussion about this later, disturbing and macabre though it would be.
A presence at my side, warm and solid, reminded me not to venture too far in exploration, just enough to get an idea of what to do. I blinked back and gave my familiar a quick glance. “You said to me once that I could likely destroy poisons in someone’s blo
odstream.”
Bannen appeared nonplussed for a moment before the light clicked on. “You’re right, I did, that first conversation we had. I remember that. Can you?”
“Apparently.” Turning, I regarded the patient and smiled. “I believe we met once before. Agent Blanks?”
“That’s me,” Blanks answered with a taut smile. His dirty blond hair looked almost grey thanks to all of the dust kicked up, smudging along his skin in streaks, but nothing could dim the fear blazing in those light brown eyes. “Magus, you think you can do something about this?”
“I won’t be able to save your fingers,” I apologized because even without magical oversight, that was obvious. “But I think I can manage to root out the rest. I just don’t know how painful this is going to be.”
“Really don’t care if it’s painful,” he assured me through clenched teeth. “It’s already painful. Just do it.”
Nodding, I focused again, taking in every trace of Toh’sellor’s energy at once and forming the incantation. I decided to be more thorough than usual, falling a little bit back on old habits, as no way did I dare leave any trace of that malignant energy behind. It almost pulsed under my regard, beating hot and steady, fighting to break free of the stasis it had been put under.
Spell together in my head, I spoke the words, hands tightening on his arm as Blanks thrashed a little, a scream caught in his throat. I couldn’t stop and apologize. Better to just get it over with, quickly, like ripping off a bandage.
Like anything else Toh’sellor related, it took three very long minutes for my spell to do its work and then every trace of the energy evaporated like it had never been. Unfortunately that meant taking the poor man’s pinky and ring finger as well, literally turning them to dust. I hadn’t quite thought through the full consequences of my spell or I would have warned Sherri hovering at his side.
She hissed a curse as she leapt in, slamming a spell over the wound before Blanks could lose any more blood and fixed me with an exasperated look.
I gave her a chagrined smile. “Sorry.”
“I’m glad we were right, that you’d be helpful in healing, but we really should have carried that conversation a little further,” Sherri griped at me good-naturedly. “Mentioning that you can disappear pieces of people’s bodies would have been helpful.”
“Sorry,” I repeated, wincing.
“Don’t apologize,” Blanks wheezed, grasping my hand with his good one, squeezing it hard enough to block blood flow. Pain drew white lines around his mouth and eyes but still he managed a smile. “Thank you, Magus. Thank you ever so much.”
I never knew how to respond when someone thanked me like this. Opening my mouth to say, well, something, Bannen saved me from the moment by jostling my shoulder with his. “Rena, they’re trying to get your attention.”
Looking up, I realized another Healer beckoned, no less frantically. “Did that work?!” he demanded of me, yelling to be heard over the short distance. “You cleared the infection?”
“Yes!” I called back and true alarm shot through me. “How many people are affected?”
Bannen pulled me up by an elbow, already focused on guarding me to the next patient. I ran there, seeing not one victim this time, but two. An agent and her familiar, a bumble bee bat, rather a unique familiar to say the least. I groaned when I realized the black spots on the yellow stripes of the bat were not in fact natural.
“Magus,” his mage agent demanded frantically, her blue eyes wide, “please heal him first. He’s so little, he won’t have the strength—”
I tuned her out, already delving into the problem. My first fear proved false, that the energy would warp the familiars in a different way than the humans, but fortunately Toh’sellor didn’t seem to differentiate between one type of living thing or another. “I can do you both at once. Bannen, hold the familiar down. Healer, hold your patient. On three: one, two, three.”
Down, down I went, once again lost in a world of black, swirling, chaotic energy and the red pulse of blood fighting to force out this terrible invader. I used the same spell as I had previously, pleased to see my magic didn’t have to stretch at all to accommodate two at once. Perhaps I could do three? Although three would definitely be my limit. Screams juddered my ear drums, one of them purely animal, but I didn’t dare let up. When the last word tumbled from my lips, I yanked my eyes back into normal sight and frantically checked them.
Bannen let go of the familiar and the poor little bat immediately flew into his master’s embrace, tucking himself into the crook of her neck and steadfastly ignoring everyone else. I totally didn’t blame him. The other agent gave me a weary nod. “Thank you.”
“Sorry it hurt,” I apologized, although really, she had no way of getting around that. Looking up, I saw Bannen had gained his feet, already looking around. “How many others?”
“Four that I’m seeing.” Raising his voice he thundered, “Who’s in danger of losing life or limb?!”
One Healer jumped up like a jack in the box. “HERE!”
Well that answered where to go next.
I dove into one problem, then another, trying to take two at a time if possible, but one of the men proved to be so complicated that I didn’t dare. At the end, they had five agents and three familiars down, two of them having lost fingers and half a foot in the process. The agent that had been captured by the minions and dragged out lost most of his arm. I had no doubt that being MISD agents, they would be fitted with the best magical prosthetics available, but still….
With so many outbreaks, everyone felt petrified of what would happen to put even a toe outside of the barrier. I went by and checked every single person, giving them a visual sweep and assuring them that no, Toh’sellor hadn’t infected them, they were quite safe at the moment. Part of it was professional courtesy (people had enough to worry about) but I did not want a minion forming in the middle of the night only to run around loose inside the barrier with us. It would be like the plot to a bad zombie novel.
Maksohm drifted over to my side after I had checked the last person, handing me a cup of water, which I gratefully took and drained. “I must apologize, Rena. I knew that the energy near Toh’sellor was on a different level than the shards we’ve engaged, but I swear to you it wasn’t this bad the last time Nora and I ventured this close.”
“I believe you.” I handed the cup back, trying to smile, feeling like I failed in the attempt utterly. Magically I felt fine, but dealing with so many people’s pain and fears had drained me badly. All I wanted to do was curl up in a corner with Bannen and cuddle for a while. Like, a few decades. “We know it gets stronger every year. Of course the energy it exudes would ramp up the closer we get.”
“We’re going to have to cut down on our exposure outside the shields. Even with double layer shields up, it’s not enough protection.” Maksohm slumped a little, just an inch, enough for me to see his exhaustion. “Thank all deities you can deal with it, though. Otherwise we’d lose this entire expedition party before we even reached our target.”
“I don’t like that thought, Maksohm.”
“Neither do I. I’m passing the order around. At the first tingle of a symptom, I want them reporting to you. I cannot afford to lose anyone else.”
I nodded immediately. “Of course.”
Maksohm moved off, grim and determined. Bannen watched him go before saying with false cheer, “Well, this just goes from bad to worse.”
“You’re telling me.” I could feel the tension building, the need to get Toh’sellor defeated as fast as possible. I did not like the idea of the people around me dying by inches because of their exposure to this thing.
Blowing out a breath, I tried to ease the tension in my neck by cracking my head from side to side. That didn’t seem to help, the headache brewing only getting worse. Maybe I was dehydrated. More water would help. Bannen moved off to help with some camp chore and I went to one of the Mules and the barrels of water lining the side. We didn’t have eno
ugh spare water for me to wash my hands, although I really wanted to, as I felt grimy. The dust here kicked up so readily I felt like it coated my skin. Looked like it, too. I pulled out a handkerchief from my pocket and wiped my visible skin as much as possible, but had a feeling all I’d done was smear it in even further. When we finished this, I planned on wallowing in a bath tub for three days straight. Oooh, bubble bath. I sighed dreamily, lost in the fantasy for a moment.
Chi came to lean against the Mule, a cup of water in his hands. “You have a pervy look on your face, my friend.”
I started a little to hear that bass voice in my ear but didn’t shove him away. “Bubble bath,” I answered seriously.
“Mmm,” he hummed in instant agreement. “That sounds delightful. I want one too.”
In a flash I realized that while we had a lot of people milling around us, we had perhaps fifteen feet of spare space, and if I kept my voice low enough, no one should be able to overhear. It was the most private moment I’d had with Chi in days. “Chi.”
“Yes?”
“I had a little girls’ chat with Vee,” I kept it concise as I didn’t know how much time I would have before we were interrupted, “and you need to make a move.”
He went unnaturally still. Voice low, so low I could barely hear him even with him an inch away, he asked, “You sure?”
“Yes. You missed your timing, that’s the problem. She’s always been interested, but you’ve been joking with her so long, she doesn’t think you’re serious. She thinks flirting is how you communicate. You need to make a move.”
“She said that?”
I suddenly wished I had been able to record our conversation for him and play it, as apparently he needed the reassurance. “She did. She also said she understood why, as having a woman be over a foot taller would make any man feel awkward, which is why she let things ride.”
Chi let out a startled huff. “Is she serious? Those long legs of her are sexy, one of the things I like about her.”
I felt pretty sure Chi liked everything about Vee, so I let that mostly slide. “All I’m saying is, she has just as many insecurities as you do, and she’s half-convinced herself you were never serious to begin with. Man up, Chi.”
The Void Mage (The Familiar and Mage Book 2) Page 31
