by Blink, Bob
Needless to say, the Caster’s brave claim that she wouldn’t reveal anything was all talk. Under the Reading she had no choice, and no one was being particularly gentle. Within a few glass of her going in the room, a complete understanding of what she’d done and where the others in her group were located was passed to Nycoh, who in turn made sure it made it back to Burke and Jeen at the Outpost.
A large group of wizards descended on the campground where the renegades had been revealed to be hiding. They’d been there, but it didn’t take long to see that the camp was deserted. They had moved quickly. When the squad hadn’t returned, they must have gone looking and discovered the remains of those who had been killed. Burke wondered if they had found the wounded woman. It didn’t matter. Given the level of their medicine and healing skills, she wasn’t going to survive anyway.
The question remained whether they had fled to another location, or whether they had returned to Sedfair to report to Carif. Burke and his team would keep looking as they continued to thin out the Hoplani, but he had the feeling that this group had left the Three Kingdoms.
Chapter 86
“It’s been two weeks since your friends captured Carif’s squad leader in your Ruins,” Queen Rosul said. They were meeting in the temporary office overlooking the city on the third floor of the castle. The once grand wing of the royal quarters was still mostly a mess, but other matters took precedence to repairs. “There have been no attacks using the beasts in either the Three Kingdoms or in Sedfair. It is not like Carif to withdraw so completely.”
The only attack of late had been a small feint by the Baldari. At first it had been thought to be something that Carif’s forces were behind, but when the intelligence reached the castle, it was obvious that the Baldari were responsible. Fortunately it was a small attack, and easily put down. Sedfair had been fortunate that the Baldari had been inactive of late. It had allowed the kingdom’s forces to concentrate on the problem of the renegade Casters.
“She’s planning something big,” Kall said with certainty.
“That’s what concerns me,” Rosul agreed. “Fortunately, each day she waits, the less chance she has to use the beasts. They are rapidly being wiped from existence. I will rest easier when our teams report none can be found any longer.”
“Our defense preparations are also in better shape each day,” Kall added. “The teams we have set up are well practiced. Given the relative numbers of Casters Carif can have left that are loyal to her pitted against the wizards we have at the castle, and Casters at the Guild that are loyal to you, she is greatly outnumbered.”
“She will strike and run,” Nycoh said. “She must have enough intelligence to know what forces we have against her. She will know that a face to face battle is not to her advantage.”
“That is true,” Rosul agreed, “but she will strike. It is not like her to give up. She will wish revenge for what has been done to her grand plan. A lifetime of careful manipulation has been taken from her. She will not let that affront go unanswered.”
Almost as if Carif was listening to their thoughts, a plan that had been carefully thought through was being executed. Nycoh looked up suddenly as she detected multiple Doorways being opened around the castle. Not too far away, both Suline and Lyes at the Guild Headquarters detected the same thing. Rigo was unaware of the Doorways being opened. Suline’s detection ability had been found to be transferable, but gaining the skill required one who was inherently a wizard, even if a very weak one, but also someone familiar with the symbolic representations required to create the Doorways. Rigo lacked the latter skill, and while he promised himself he would learn it, he simply hadn’t had the time. Nycoh and Lyes had both requirements, and once Suline’s wizard skills had been unlocked, they had learned the technique from her.
“They’re attacking,” Nycoh said with certainty. “We must act quickly.” She stood and hurried to the window to look outside. “Hoplani,” she said. “Hundreds of them in the streets around the castle.”
Carif’s Casters had opened eight independent Doorways to drive the enraged Chulls into the market and streets around the castle. They had chosen the middle of the day for the attack because the greatest number of people would be present in the courtyards around the castle at that time and they wished to maximize the terror and use the people as a diversion for their other plans.
“The Doorways originate from almost the same location. They must have found a large herd that our people have missed and used multiple Casters to open so many paths in front of the herd,” Nycoh said. “They have become skilled at herding the beasts.”
Down on the street the situation was instantly chaotic. The Doorways had been positioned carefully, by someone who knew exactly what they were doing and had considered the layout of the city and the market place when they chose the exit points. Everything had been planned to create the most terror and death as possible. The desire was to force Queen Rosul to commit her forces to protect the citizens of Nals. One group of the Chulls boiled out of the Doorway exit, charging directly into a series of stalls set up along the most populated section of the walkway. Goods and people scattered as the beasts reduced the stalls to rubble, leaving dozens down in their passing. The crowd tried to back away, but this time of day the marketplace was packed, and within a few steps, those attempting to run found their way blocked by a mass of people preventing their escape. The beasts plowed into the crowd, blasting many with their magic and using their sharp teeth to rip and tear as they trampled their way through.
The scene was repeated in multiple locations. Farther away, a herd of Chulls had been released into the university grounds, and the few students still in the area fled in terror. The larger buildings were safe from the beasts, but smaller structures were battered to rubble as the herd thundered through the area. Within the first few minutes several hundred people had died as a result of the attack.
The screams of the people had not gone unheard, and already the duty force of wizards were appearing on the streets, using their magic to kill or deflect the beasts. Rigo watched from the castle as one wizard mimicked something Rigo had done long ago, causing the earth to erupt and blast rock and dirt explosively in the air. The charging Hoplani were startled by the blasts, and the three dozen beasts that had been charging down on the wizard’s position in front of a crowd of shoppers, swung away from the explosions, and turned down a smaller, unoccupied street. Intense beams of Brightfire flashed repeatedly from several locations as other wizards attempted to cut the creatures down before they could kill the unarmed citizens.
Kall was already on the move, headed toward the barracks and the soldiers he now commanded. They were equipped with swords and spears that could kill the beasts, and had trained against another attack of this type. Each wore the special armor tested by those along the border that absorbed the energy blasts from the beasts, which would make them immune to anything but direct contact with the Chulls.
“Get the Queen to the command center,” Kall ordered as he hurried from the room. A special area had been prepared in the lower, most protected levels of the castle in the event of an attack. Even though the stone had been enhanced with magic and was more resistant than most, if Carif’s Casters made an assault, the castle could not stand against the energies they could control. Rosul was to be taken there, along with one of her wizards, and if matters looked grim, taken away via Doorway before she could be captured or harmed. Even though she would have preferred to watch the attack, this was a very exposed area. There was nothing she could do to affect the course of the encounter, and she was one of Carif’s likely targets.
“Someone’s attacking the Guild,” Nycoh shouted. She was looking out of the window on the opposite side of the room. Before Rigo could say anything, Nycoh was gone through a Bypass she had made. Rigo cursed. Nycoh shouldn’t be so exposed, but he didn’t know where she had gone, and couldn’t help her at the moment. He had to be certain the Queen was protected. He pointed to two guardsmen, and i
ndicated they were to escort her to the basement. He sent another to find the wizard assigned to her. Rigo hoped Mitty had reacted as agreed, and was already in the secure chamber under the castle. He would have liked to go and check, but people were dying out there.
A quick glance out the window showed him a Caster shooting blasts of fire toward the crowd. Carif’s people had arrived. With barely a thought he opened a masked Bypass a short distance behind the Caster. He stepped through, burned the bitch out of existence, then quickly returned to the castle. As he stepped into the room he’d only been away from for moments, he noticed an annoyed Daria and Kaler hurrying into the room.
“You agreed not to go into any fight without us,” Daria accused him.
“Sorry,” Rigo replied tritely. “Let’s see what we can do. I have seen at least a dozen and a half of Carif’s Casters in the area. They are attacking the people, but mostly are attempting to kill those who responded to the Hoplani attacks. They used the creatures to lure Rosul’s wizards out where they could be attacked.”
Rigo could see that Rosul’s wizards were responding, using the techniques he and Kall had trained them in. A wizard could only execute a single spell at a time. It wasn’t possible to open a Bypass, then execute a fighting spell, followed by a quick escape through the waiting Bypass. The Bypass would have collapsed when the fighting spell was executed. They had known this would be a cat and mouse situation if it occurred. As a result, teams were created of two to three wizards. One was solely responsible for creating the Doorways. While the others concentrated on fighting, he always had the escape Doorway open and waiting. It was jump to a position, fire off the beams, hopefully taking out the enemy, then jumping to another location before being targeted yourself.
Knowing what to look for, Rigo could see teams winking in and out of position all over the area below. Anyone with the ability to monitor the Doorways would have to be totally confused as the number of portals opening and closing was too great to track.
Rigo watched as one of his teams surprised a pair of Casters and wrapped the pair in a fierce display of fire. Another team blasted an unsuspecting Caster with Brightfire. It wasn’t one sided though. As Rigo watched, a team stepped into a position in preparation of attacking a pair of Casters, only to find they had been expecting something of the sort, and as Rosul’s young wizards stepped out of their Doorway, they were met by killing fire from the enemy. Overall, the enemy was outnumbered more than two to one, and had been prepared against just such a move by the defenders. He could see Kall and his guardsmen charging out of the castle on their mounts, ignoring the Casters by charging directly towards the Hoplani that still ran free in the streets.
Rigo could see they had the advantage here. He didn’t know if it was the same at the Guild where Nycoh had gone. “Come on,” he said to Daria and Kaler. “We need to check on Nycoh.”
At Guild Headquarters, Suline and Lyes charged into Ardra’s office at almost the same time.
“Doorways. Lots of them,” Suline said.
“Originating out in the Wastelands,” Lyes added.
“Unmasked?” Ardra asked unnecessarily, standing up and heading toward the door of her office. They wouldn’t have detected the origins if they hadn’t been.
“Yeah. At least these are. But I can tell there are others that are masked so I can’t detect where they are coming from. We have to assume Carif and her supporters will be coming through the masked ones. They could appear anywhere.”
A deep shudder shook the building. The Guild Headquarters, like the castle and the Outpost in the Three Kingdoms had been protected by Daim with his secret means of blocking Doorway access. That would keep Carif and her people from making Doorways into the area they had controlled for so long. Not that it would be a good idea for them to break in. The interior was protected by glyphs that blocked all access to magic. Carif would have to know that. Many of the glyphs had been put in place at her order, and she’d have to suspect the locations had at least changed, and probably expanded. That would mean stepping into a place where she would be unable to draw upon her power. Not a good thing.
Of course, as skilled as she was, she might hope she could disable the spell before entering. That might be what they were planning. Blast a way in since they couldn’t come in the usual way, then disable the protection. Then they could enter and attack as they might like. That wasn’t going to work either, however. Ardra glanced quickly at the activated power crystal set along the wall. It still was dark, indicating its access to the power was blocked. The spell was in place.
The problem that Carif and her fellow Casters would face was complicated by the fact that wizards were different than Casters. If the blocking spell was disabled, and Carif entered the Headquarters building, she would soon discover that any of a number of the residents could re-enable it once again. If Carif was inside when that happened, she would find herself cut off. So would many of the residents, but not all. Always on hand were a number of wizards. They wore the armbands that Daim had created, and were not affected by the blocking spell. Their magic worked in either case. That meant Suline and Lyes, who were inherent wizards, still could access their magic. Ardra was one who couldn’t. But even a handful of those with the power would be sufficient to handle even several dozen Casters who had been cut off. In addition, a squad of guardsmen were also present to handle any intruders who attempted to breach the perimeter by means of simple force.
The building shuddered again, and a section of a far wall cracked and broke away. Obviously, Carif wasn’t attempting to enter the building. She apparently wished to see it destroyed. Whether she was after the building and its contents or those inside, remained to be seen. If she wished to destroy the knowledge stored in the building, she was out of luck. Queen Rosul and Nycoh had been foresighted enough to relocate all materials of value some time ago. Carif would have little chance of locating them now. If she were after the people, revenge of some sort, time would tell if she and her Casters were powerful enough.
Until Carif attempted to enter the building, the blocked spell worked more to the disadvantage of the defenders than the attackers. Lyes quickly disabled the glyphs allowing all Casters within access to their magic. He saw the crystal start to glow. They could cut it off again should the need arise. He could already hear the sizzle of Brightfire being returned from nearby windows as those inside fired back.
Like the castle, the very stone that had been used to construct the Guild headquarters had been infused with magic power to make it resistant to attack. It was nowhere near as strong as Carif’s residence had been, but it didn’t simply crumble and break away at the first touch of the magic beams. More than anyone, Carif had to be aware of this, and as a result had brought her most powerful allies along. In addition to herself, the three remaining members of her Eight could wield the powerful green energy beams. In addition, Mande, someone she had planned to elevate to the Eight when this was over, also was able to produce the destructive beams. She was here as well, and busily blasting at the structure.
Carif knew the building would have to be destroyed. It would be unwise and unsafe to attempt to capture it. It didn’t matter. While she would have liked to recover certain items from inside, she suspected they were already gone. She had copies of most of the important items anyway. She also knew, even if she were to triumph over the forces the Queen now had against her, the next Guild would not be here in Nals. A new, more protected location would be their new home. She already knew where, but there was little point in thinking about that now.
While the Guild had been built with judicious application of magic to make it impenetrable, the envisioned attackers had been those without power, not wizards of strength equal to or greater than her own. The area around the Headquarters had been designed for grace and beauty, and to allow clear firing angle and little cover for any army that attempted to storm the facility. That meant few places to hide, at least for large groups. There were a number of statues, hardened against
wear, which also meant they were resistant to the more usual beams of magic, as well as a large fountain, and a number of old and tough trees with very large trunks. All were useful cover for herself and her friends, as they popped out of Doorways, unleashed a blast of fire, then disappeared into another Doorway, to reappear nearby.
Already the building was showing signs of weakening as beam after beam of the powerful magic was shot into the foundations. Yathi had blasted away a large section of the top floor in response to a beam that had been directed at her. Carif was certain that whoever had shot at them from the window that had once been there had not survived. Ensay unleashed a bright green beam in response to an attack at her last location. Still moving a little stiffly from the knife wound that had not properly healed, she turned and dived through her Doorway just before an unusually intense blast of Brightfire shredded the tree trunk she had been using as cover. The tall tree that had stood for several centuries cracked and tumbled to the ground as its base was destroyed.
It was important to keep moving, Carif thought, as she sent her own beam into the base of the structure, causing a series of cracks to propagate up the side near the impact point of her attack. Carif looked fierce, and almost ten years younger today. The fight had invigorated her. Confrontation had always agreed with her, and she was filled with hate and anger at those who had opposed her. She would eliminate those who had dared to replace her as head of the Guild, and hopefully take from them the symbol of her organization as well as many of the more capable Casters who were left. She hesitated longer than she should, sent off another blast and was pleased to see a whole section of wall collapse as she turned and dived through the Doorway which would take her to a spot behind a statue on the opposite side of the Headquarters.
The beams of magic were coming from almost every window now. The defenders would shoot, dive away from the window, and move to another spot to shoot from. Frequently the spot they had just vacated was bathed in multicolored light as the attackers responded to their firing. Below, in the courtyard, the places that Carif and her companions could hide were slowly being whittled away. The trees had all been destroyed. They weren’t resistant, and each blast took one down. Lyes had targeted all on this side of the building, whether anyone was hiding there or not. The trees he’d destroyed would no longer be useful for cover. Most of the statues glowed brightly from repeated hits, and several had lost heads or arms. He didn’t know how many more hits would be required to destroy one of them. They were surprisingly resilient. If he or any of the other defenders had been skilled with the same energy being directed against them, this would have been over. Unfortunately, the destructive green energy was something that Carif and her friends were the sole masters of.
