“Kellen, help us!” demanded the one with the rod and the master warrior moved as if the command was all he needed to galvanize him into action. His fists wailed on Byrn’s barrier causing it tremor with each attack. A gust of wind flew from Byrn’s hand and threw all of his attackers off of their feet except for Sane who was off to one side.
“Out the door,” Byrn ordered and the women followed. The rangers did not have time to collect their armor, but each managed to grab their bows, quivers, and knife belts. No sooner had Sari let go of the staff and ran out the door behind Byrn and Marian than a spray of ice sailed out behind her narrowly missing the fleeing elf.
In the common room they were greeted by another dozen of the Kenzai and just as many of the warlord’s men. These men posed little threat to Byrn, but with Sane and Kellen hot on their heels, the rest of their group needed to escape quickly.
The rangers loosed an arrow each into the surrounding guards between them and the door. Byrn raised a wall of flame between his companions and the soldiers.
“Through the kitchen,” Marian told them. Luck was on their side and they did not encounter any more guardsmen in the kitchen so that they could quickly make their way out the back door, but their luck did not last as they exited the inn and found it surrounded by a mix of Kenzai and regular guardsmen.
“There must be two hundred guards out here,” Marian said; her tone was a mixture of awe and fear.
“Stay behind me,” Byrn told the others. He was already weaving a spell in his mind, one that was powerful enough to kill all of these men. He failed to protect his friends in Lion’s Landing, he would not fail again even at the expense of his life. He spread his hands out in a wave generating a blast of hot air to prepare the way for what he intended. Another wave of his hands whipped a ring of fire outward towards the soldiers as he continued his preparation.
A hail of arrows flew from the rear guard of soldiers, while the front line advanced with spears and shields raised.
“Now would be an excellent time to do something,” Sari pleaded. She readied an arrow in her bow even as the enemies’ own soared ever closer.
The third round of flames rose up from the ground at Byrn’s feet and rushed for the soldiers like a tidal wave of red and orange dancing flame. They consumed the incoming arrows and towered over the front line of soldiers.
Seeing the death he was about to reap that would also be his undoing, Marian shouted, “No!”
The wave turned into a sheet and spread over Silvering’s army, but did not crash down on them as Byrn altered the spell at the last moment. Instead the soldiers were trapped in a colossal flame shell. The Kenzai warriors absorbed the spell as best they could, but they could barely make a ripple in the cascading flame wall. A few foolish fighters tried to press their hands through the walls and writhed in pain from the burns they received.
“We need to get out of here,” Byrn shouted, “before that dome collapses. I can’t hold it up for long if Sane catches us.”
As if in answer Kenzai poured out of the inn’s backdoor followed by Kellen and Sane. The look on the sorcerer’s face was one of pain, but it was no physical pain he felt. It was the pain of being forced to watch helplessly while another controlled his body and forced him to harm his comrades. He knew the most dangerous spell to kill the others; one that was practically impossible to defend against and Sane immediately began casting it to his own horror.
“Run!” Byrn shouted.
Marian began, “What-“ but Byrn cut her off.
“Go!” he shouted, “No time to argue!” It was unclear what Sane was intending to cast, but Byrn could see the magic as it pulled and began to swirl around him and knew it would be deadly. If it came to a showdown with Sane, Byrn thought he could win, but not without being willing to kill the old sorcerer and certainly not with a legion of Kenzai out for his blood.
The three fugitives ran as the new group of Kenzai chased them. The air grew heavy around them and a certainty that they would not have enough time to outdistance Sane’s spell overcame each of them. Sari turned and readied an arrow. “Forgive me,” she whispered to the man who could not possibly hear her from that distance and loosed the arrow. It slashed through the wind heading toward Sane. The elf watched just long enough to know that her aim was true before turning away. She could not watch him die.
The arrow bounced off of one of the Kenzai warriors’ shields as he raised it to protect the magician just before it would have struck him in the head.
“You’ll not take my toy,” the Kenzai with the rod bellowed.
The air was charged with energy and a pulse of raw magical force came from overhead. Byrn erected a barrier above him that was large enough to defend Marian and Sari as well just before the lightning struck at them from the heavens. This was no simple spell thrown about by apprentices. This was a lightning strike called down from the hands of the gods meant to do the sorcerer’s bidding. To wield the elements using one’s own energy was the work of lesser magicians, but to wield the very elementals in their raw and natural fury was the act of a master. Sane’s lightning struck Byrn’s shield with the full force of nature behind it. It danced along the edges for nearly a full minute as its intensity only grew and formed into a giant ball of living energy.
Marian and Sari fell to their knees and involuntarily screamed in pain as steam rose from their bodies, triggered by the lightning’s intense heat. Only Byrn was unaffected by the lightning’s temperature and he tried to push additional power into his shield to block out more of the heat.
Byrn began to feel the pressure of maintaining constant protection against the primal onslaught until it finally culminated in an explosive force unknown to the kingdom in decades. A lesser magician, perhaps even another master, would have been torn apart by the sorcerer’s spell, but Byrn survived and managed to protect his companions as well, but that did not stop all three of them from being thrown into the ground by the concussive force of the blast leaving them stunned in its final bid to penetrate the shield.
Sane fell to his knees fore the energy required to wield such a powerful spell at his advancing age left him weary beyond belief. It was Kellen who helped Sane to his feet as the rest of the Kenzai hurried to use the advantage that Sane had given them.
The soldiers trapped in the flame dome were freed as Byrn lost his concentration. He willed himself to get up and fight back, but he had trouble getting his stunned body to obey despite the danger.
Marian aimed an arrow and let it fly. Byrn wanted to tell her to run again, but his head was too dizzy. He tried to focus his mind. The cobwebs were clearing away, but not fast enough. More arrows came at them and Sari grabbed him, jerking him out of the way. They did not move more than a few feet, but it was enough to evade most of the bolts. Byrn felt one bite him in the calf, but that was far more preferable to getting stuck like a wild boar.
He saw Marian standing in the moon’s light so that he could see the look of shock on her face and an arrow protruding from her neck. She fell back and Byrn caught her in his arms. His own pain was forgotten as he tried desperately to pull the arrow from her rapidly cooling body. It can’t end like this. He summoned healing energy and pushed it toward her. The Kenzai were advancing on him now, but Byrn did not care. He had to save her.
Byrn’s own words echoed in his head. I need your help. My mother is here somewhere and I cannot find her on my own. I would not even know how to begin, he had begged.
If I help you, then will you agree to come back with me willingly to Baj to answer for your crimes? Kellen had asked him in answer.
You’re asking me to trade my life for my mother’s?
I am.
“Fine, then take my life!” Byrn cried pushing more energy at her, unwilling to accept the truth before him. No amount of healing could restore a life once it was lost. Sari held him then as they mourned the loss of the woman who was a beloved mother to one and a cherished friend to the other.
They were surrounded
and Sari held Byrn just a little tighter. She placed her hand in his. To those around them it may have seemed like a simple act of kindness, but Byrn felt the familiar shape of a wooden disk being placed in his hand.
“Put that collar on him,” commanded the Kenzai who controlled Sane to Kellen. The knight refused and another among the crowd took the collar from him. The soldier was almost within arm’s reach of Byrn when he cast the transportation spell that ripped him along with Sari and Marian’s body from this realm of existence.
Chapter 26
Sari pulled the arrow from Byrn’s leg and tossed it into the dense foliage. “This is the Red Tree Forest- home to my people,” she told him though he had not asked.
When they transported it was late in the night, but here the sun was just beginning to rise. They had traveled far, indeed. Sari continued, she seemed eager to talk, but was not ready to face what had just happened, “It was probably forty years ago when Sane made me this rune. I was eager to leave the forest and see what the world had to offer, but being a youngling of only twenty years, I was scared as well.
“The forest was my only home, my only world up to then. He made me this rune so that if I ever got homesick or the world of man became too much for me to handle I could return here. We stood at this very spot and he vowed to protect me.” Tears welled up in her eyes and one or two began to stream down her cheeks, glistening in the morning’s gentle light.
“It wasn’t him,” Byrn told her firmly, “It was the collar. He could not control himself. You do not blame the sword for the death it causes. You blame the man who wields it.” He set about restoring his wounded leg. His hand hovered over the scarred tissue and he channeled healing bliss into it. “We will free him soon enough, but first we have to take care of my mother.”
“We should return her to the earth,” Sari suggested, “so that even in death she will spring new life.”
“You misunderstand,” Byrn told her, “I can bring her back to life!”
The elf looked shocked, “The walkers are not the same as being alive! They are all but mindless creatures- abominations!” Birds flew from the trees at Sari’s rising voice.
“It is not like that! I can summon her true spirit from the underworld and bind it to her body. She would be back, but better because she could not die again. If I had understood how to do this before I could have saved so many others.” Byrn placed his hands on his mother so that his right hand covered her heart and the left rested upon her head. He began to chant strange words meant to focus his mind and beseech Kassani, the goddess of death, as he had learned under Avelice’s tutelage.
A grey shape began to form before his eyes appearing first as an amorphous cloud, but slowly it began to coalesce into the shape of a woman. Marian’s face grew more defined as the summoning took hold of her soul. Sari cried out for Byrn to stop, but he scarcely heard her. He felt far away as the magic flowed through him.
Then there was the cold touch of steel against his throat. The blade shook visibly in the elf’s hand causing her to knick Byrn’s neck and draw a thin line of blood. “Stop it!” she commanded. She meant her tone to sound resolute, but her voice shook with even greater effect than her weapon.
“If you meant to kill me, then you should have done so,” Byrn told her. Unlike the elf, his words held strong like stone. “The moment you placed your knife to my throat, I erected a series of small, invisible barriers along my body, like a second skin of armor. It will take much more than a dagger to hurt me now.”
A wave of his hand drove the elf to the ground and her knife flew from her hand. Byrn stood motionless as he looked down at the elf quivering before him. He looked into her almond shaped eyes and he knew this was all too much for her. She was a proud warrior in her own right, but for months she had been put to the grinding stone with the conflict with the orcs, the betrayal of her fellow rangers, the loss of Sane, and now Marian’s death.
Byrn helped her to her feet and smiled reassuringly as he handed back her knife. “Don’t worry,” he said gently, “When she is back, then you will see-“
A cold feeling passed through his shoulder causing Byrn to turn abruptly. It was his mother’s spirit. Her face was the ashen grey of the dead and when he looked upon her his heart sank in his chest. Her smile was comforting, but sad at the same time and she shook her head slightly. She did not want this.
Byrn fell to his knees and released the spell. Marian’s spirit began to wisp away in a cloud of smoke before his eyes. Her lips moved silently and though she could not speak Byrn still understood the words. I love you. Sari was right. He was tampering in uses of magic that should be left alone. Just because it is within a man’s power to bend the world to his will did not mean that he had the right to do so.
Sari pulled the magician to her and held him to her chest. “That is not life, Byrn. You have to let her go. It is her time to rest.”
The temperature rose ten degrees around them with Byrn’s flash of anger and despair forcing the elf to let him go. Her hand went to her knife again without thinking, but it would prove unnecessary as the heat began to dissipate as quickly as it came.
“I know,” he choked.
Sari held him tighter in answer.
The magician stared at his mother’s body lying on the floor of the Red Tree Forest as Sari removed the arrow lodged in her throat. She was careful not to do any more damage to the body of her once student and friend though both of them knew it hardly mattered. When they finished Byrn lifted Marian’s body.
“We need to burn her. If we bury her, then I will always be tempted to bring her back.”
Sari led them through the red trees for hours until they came to a clearing with a large flat stone near the center. For most of that time the human and elf traveled in silence each reflecting on what had happened in their own way. It was not until they reached the stone that Sari spoke.
“This is a meeting place of the wood elves. Our leaders gather here once a year to discuss news from the various regions and discuss pairings of young.” It was not uncommon for elves to have arranged marriages outside of their own clans considering their limited population and slow reproduction cycle.
Byrn set the body on the stone, “Mother, I hope that you can find peace in death. I hope that I have made you proud as a son and will continue to do so.” He looked to Sari. She was blurred due to the fresh tears in his eyes. “I don’t know what else to say, but it doesn’t feel like enough.”
She placed her hand in his and squeezed. “It is enough. She knows how you felt.” Sari regarded her friend’s body and placed her other hand on Marian’s chest. “Rest, dear friend, your trials are at an end. May you know the peace of eternity and the love of those you left behind.” She nodded to Byrn and he conjured a fire that quickly spread across the body.
Sari sung a song in elvish as Marian’s body was consumed by the flames. Byrn did not know what the words meant, but they were sorrowful and somehow made him feel at peace while he listened intently.
Elves showed up as the fire died down, drawn in by Sari’s song and the signal of rising smoke. They were dark haired with fair complexions like Sari, but their garb was simpler attire than the clothing that Sari usually wore. They were dressed in light leathers that looked to be designed for function, not fashion. Their bows and knives looked sturdy, but lacked any ornate beauty, instead appearing to be for utilitarian purposes as well. They were decidedly different from Sari or the elves that Byrn knew from the fanciful stories he heard as a child. The elves conversed with Sari in their own tongue and it became clear that they knew her.
Sari told Byrn, “We must go with them now. We go to meet the king of the red trees, Shatala. Most humans who enter this forest are killed outright. Those that are not are taken before the king to await his judgment.”
“Do you know this king? What do you think he will want to do with me?” Byrn asked as they joined the elves.
“I’m not sure. The last magician that he allowed to leave
the forest took the king’s daughter with him. From what the others have told me, he did not take too kindly to that and has been in a foul mood for nearly four decades. However, he might look on you more kindly considering that you brought her back.”
Byrn laughed and more than a few of the elves’ hands went to their weapons at the sudden sound. “You are a princess. Why does that fail to surprise me? Sadly, that is not the most outlandish thing I have heard in the last day.”
The elf shrugged. “No, my father is king, but that only means that he has authority over our clan and represents us in elven matters. To us the term ‘king’ means leader or clan-father rather than ruler. There is also no blood lineage determining who will lead us and no nobility to speak of. One day my father will step down as king when he becomes too old to hunt and a new leader will be determined by consensus.”
“No offense was intended, my lady,” Byrn apologized.
“None was taken. I only meant to enlighten you on the woodland elven society. It is far different from the life you knew. The woodland elves live a much simpler life than humans or even our own city brethren, but it is also a much more regimented way of living than you may be used to. The red trees can be a dangerous place and the elves that live here have become severe as a result.”
They walked in the company of the woodland elves for hours more, stopping to rest occasionally. The trees were far bigger than the ones in Aurelia. It was clear why their wood was considered to be such a prize and was used for the construction of Ashura’s temples. Byrn was fumbling with the rune Sari had given him- the one that brought them to the Red Tree Forest. When he wondered, “Where will the next rune take us?”
“What rune?” she sounded surprised and that worried the magician.
“The one that will take us back to the kingdom,” Byrn answered, “Sane surely gave you another that would lead back Aurelia.”
“No, that was all I had. Sane would have his own runes to get back to the kingdom. Don’t you have any runes?” she asked.
Fallen Magician (The Magician Rebellion) Page 21
