She suspected that Alexander would be furious if he knew what she was facing. He would never accept that anyone could challenge her marriage to him, least of all for simple personal vengeance. As she knocked on Magda’s door she hoped she was doing the right thing.
“Come in,” Magda said from behind the door.
Isabel found the triumvir sitting in her reading chair sipping tea from a fine ceramic cup. She motioned for Isabel to sit and poured her a cup.
They talked for most of the morning as Magda questioned her about the shield spell. By the time Magda was satisfied with her understanding of the spell, Isabel was mentally tired from the thorough examination but she knew time was short and she needed to make the most of it, so she insisted that she attempt the casting.
She struggled for most of the afternoon to cast the spell. She failed over and over because she wasn’t accustomed to creating a spell with a duration effect. It took several hours before she was able to create the shield and then it only lasted for a few moments before it winked out of existence. When Isabel began to become frustrated with her repeated failure, Magda stopped her.
“You’ve done enough for today, child. Think about how it felt when the shield worked. Your mindset was different during that casting than all of the others. Spend the evening thinking about that feeling and frame of mind. Return to me tomorrow and we’ll continue with your practice.
“Also consider the emotion you choose to use with the spell. A shield can be cast with either love or anger. Both will work as your distraction emotion but you should choose carefully to ensure that you can cast the other spells you may need since it’s often difficult to switch emotions quickly.”
Isabel nodded and returned to her chambers dejected and exhausted. After a quiet dinner eaten amid worried looks from Abigail and Wren, Isabel retired to her room to meditate on the shield spell. She played the attempts to cast the spell over and over in her mind, looking for the difference between all of the failures and the one successful casting.
By bedtime she thought she’d discovered the difference. The one time she was successful she had envisioned motion occurring around her. The times she had failed, she had seen her surroundings as static. She drifted off to sleep wondering about the significance of the difference.
The next morning the concept seemed to spring full-blown into her mind the moment she woke. Motion could only happen within the context of time. Adding motion to her visualization communicated the concept of time to the firmament and therefore created a shield that had duration.
When she explained her conclusions to Magda, the triumvir smiled and nodded. “Well done, child. That concept is often difficult for novices to grasp and even more difficult to implement. Spend the rest of the day working on your visualization exercises, paying particular attention to the third exercise that focuses on your surroundings. Come back tomorrow and you can attempt the casting again.”
Isabel was impatient to make the spell work but she reluctantly agreed. The day passed quickly. Abigail had regained enough strength that she was tending to Kallistos, so Wren spent the day watching Isabel meditate. At first it was a bit unsettling but Isabel chose to use the harmless distraction as an opportunity to hone her powers of concentration.
She returned to Magda the following day with renewed confidence. Her first attempt at casting the shield spell created a bubble of magical energy surrounding her at a range of about three feet that lasted for nearly a full minute.
By the end of the day she could cast the spell with greater ease, although not nearly as fast as the light lance, and she could maintain it for almost ten minutes.
The following day, Magda spent the morning launching attacks at Isabel to build her confidence in the shield. At first she flinched and ducked out of the way of the rocks that Magda hurled at her but once she saw how they bounced harmlessly off her shield, she became more confident in the magic. When Magda moved on to magical attacks, Isabel was again less sure of her ability to protect herself but she soon found that her shield spell protected against the light-lance spell, although Magda admitted she was not powering the spell at her full potential. Magda directed a variety of other spells at Isabel from magically hurling rocks at her with significant force to casting a gout of magical fire at her to directing a burst of magical force at her.
The second time Magda hurled the wave of magical force, it penetrated the shield and sent Isabel sprawling onto her back. She felt the shield spell collapse as the magic hit it and knew instinctively that, without the protection of the shield, the spell would have probably killed her.
“You’ve done enough for today,” Magda said as she helped her to her feet. “I hit you harder that last time to show you what you can expect from Gabriella. She will not use the restraint I have shown today. With all of my attacks, I was careful and measured to ensure that I wouldn’t overpower your shield. It will absorb the brunt of the first attack she throws at you but will probably collapse in the process. Her second attack will kill you.
“It’s not too late to reconsider. I can fight in your stead or you can flee this place and be done with her challenge. Either way, you will survive. If you fight her, even with your Maker’s light spell, she will most likely kill you.”
“I’ve made up my mind,” Isabel said firmly. “I’m going to face Gabriella and I’m going to kill her, even if no one believes I can.”
“You certainly have the stubbornness of a witch,” Magda said, shaking her head. “I’ve taught you all I can in the time we’ve had. The challenge will take place in a few days. Spend the time with Abigail and prepare as best you can. If you reconsider, I’ll help you in any way that I can. If you choose to fight, I cannot intervene once the battle has begun.”
“I understand. Thank you, Magda. You’ve given me a fighting chance. When this is over, I hope you’ll forgive me for killing Gabriella.”
Magda chuckled. “If I didn’t know better, I’d suspect you’re bringing something to the battlefield I’m not aware of.”
Isabel schooled her face and calmed her emotions. She couldn’t let anyone know that she could control the wyverns. Her survival depended on that one ability.
She shrugged. “Once I’ve disabled her spell casting with my Maker’s light spell, I’ll kill her with Abigail’s bow or my sword. Without her magic, she’s no match for me on the battlefield.”
“Perhaps, but I must warn you, Gabriella is very cunning. She will come to the field with a plan and she has a wide variety of spells to draw on. Don’t believe everything you see—she’s very good at deception and illusion.”
The remaining days before the challenge passed quickly. Isabel went over her plan again and again. She refined it and added contingency plans to compensate for Gabriella’s actions. She sharpened her sword and practiced with Abigail’s bow. She reviewed the three spells in her repertoire and very carefully practiced her control over the wyverns. When she was sick of preparing, she thought of Alexander and hoped he was safe. She longed to see him again but her only path lay through Gabriella. Defeat her or die. Those were her choices.
The morning of the challenge came and Isabel woke well rested and confident. She was tired of the anticipation and wanted the fight over with, one way or another.
Abigail and Wren were at the breakfast table when Isabel emerged from her room. Wren had laid out a large spread for breakfast. The possibility of it being her last meal wasn’t lost on Isabel. She ate her fill and made a deliberate effort to savor every bite.
“You’re sure about this,” Abigail said as Wren cleared the dishes.
“I am. One way or another our stay here is coming to an end,” Isabel said. “If Gabriella kills me, you need to leave as soon as possible. Go to Magda and ask for her help. Take Kallistos and Wren and go to Ithilian. Find Alexander and tell him that I love him.”
“I thought you said you were sure about this,” Abigail said with a frown.
Isabel shrugged. “Can’t hurt to have a contingency plan.”
She focused on Gabriella, on her selfishness and desire for petty vengeance in the face of such a dangerous time for the people of the Seven Isles. She let the anger build into a coiled rage and held it in the pit of her stomach as she walked with Wren and Abigail to the top of the plateau. The witches and the Sky Knights were all assembled around the battlefield. The sun had reached the highest point in the sky on a clear and warm summer day. Under other circumstances it would have been a wonderful day for a stroll through the gardens.
Isabel gave Abigail and Wren a hug, checked her sword in its scabbard, and stepped onto the battlefield. She heard Slyder screech from overhead and felt a sense of comfort knowing her familiar was watching over her.
Gabriella arrived a few moments later, riding her giant wyvern Asteroth, and landed on the opposite end of the field. She gave a nod to Cassandra and Magda who stood on a platform at the center of one side of the battlefield.
In a clear and unwavering voice, Magda spoke to the assembled witches, Sky Knights, and trade class. “We have come to witness the challenge issued by Mistress Gabriella against Lady Reishi for her title. This contest will end only with the death or surrender of one and the victory of the other. The victor will claim the title of the vanquished. Mistress Gabriella, Lady Reishi, you have three minutes to make preparations. The battle will begin when the bell tolls.”
Isabel reached out with her mind to make contact with Gabriella’s steed. A thrill of alarm ran up her spine when she couldn’t find the wyvern that was plainly standing before her. She looked across the battlefield. Gabriella was sitting atop her magnificent wyvern, watching her like a bug in a jar—but Isabel couldn’t find Asteroth’s mind. When she broadened her search, she was alarmed to find Gabriella’s steed napping lazily in his aerie.
Things were not as they seemed. Not for the first time, Isabel wished she had Alexander’s sight. He would know the truth of what she faced.
She tipped her head back and looked through Slyder’s eyes at the field below. What she saw made her gasp. Gabriella stood off to the side of the field near the edge opposite the other two triumvirs and her steed wasn’t even there. Gabriella was using the magic of illusion.
Isabel touched Asteroth’s mind and called out to him, demanding that he come forth for battle. A roar reverberated through the stone of the fortress island. She only hoped he would arrive soon enough to make a difference. Her plan had backfired. Gabriella was showing her what she wanted to see. Deception indeed.
Isabel quickly cast the shield spell to give herself some measure of protection against Gabriella’s first attack and then nocked an arrow. She faced the illusion and closed her eyes to link with Slyder. Through his eyes she could see the entire field as it really was. Gabriella’s magic appeared to work on all of the assembled people yet not on Slyder, possibly because Isabel had never revealed that she had a familiar to anyone on the fortress island.
She waited, holding her breath, until the bell tolled. As the clear tone died out, Isabel loosed her arrow at Gabriella’s true position. The triumvir dodged quickly and cried out in rage as the shaft sliced along her left shoulder.
The battle was joined and Isabel had drawn first blood. She felt the calm of the fight settle on her. All of her nervousness faded as her senses sharpened and her mind focused.
She opened her eyes to see the illusion of Gabriella and Asteroth fade while at the same time the real Gabriella came into sight. Isabel loosed another arrow but Gabriella raised a shield of her own that deflected the shaft.
She turned a murderous glare on Isabel even as she raised her hand and cast a spell. A wave of magical force crashed into Isabel’s shield, collapsing the magically protective bubble and knocking Isabel flat on her back. She hit the ground hard and shook her head in a daze from the shock of the blow. She heard a wyvern roar from above, but Asteroth would be too late. Gabriella’s next attack would finish her.
Isabel shook off the haze in her mind and tried to get up, only to find that the grass of the field had grown up and around her arms and legs, pinning her to the ground. From off in the distance, she heard the gloating laughter of Gabriella as the triumvir walked toward her prey.
Isabel felt a thrill of panic but pushed it away in favor of rage. She poured the fuel of fear into her anger and ripped her right arm free of the grass so she could hit Gabriella with a light-lance spell. It came easily and was fueled with greater rage and a stronger connection to the firmament than Isabel had ever managed before. The heat of battle mixed with the deliberate anger she’d been nursing protected her from the full and unrestrained connection she made with the firmament. The power of the spell should have been enough to sear the flesh from Gabriella’s bones, but she stood leaning into her shield as the piercing heat of the light was absorbed or deflected away.
When the light was spent, Gabriella laughed. “Is that everything, girl? Do you have anything else you’d like to try?” She sauntered toward Isabel, still pinned to the ground by magically animated vegetation, with a grim and menacing grin.
Isabel touched Gabriella’s steed with her mind. He was still a minute or two from arriving at the field after breaking free of his handler’s attempts to restrain him and launching himself into the sky from the nearest bay.
Isabel thought of Alexander. She needed to see him again. If she could survive for just a minute more, she had a fighting chance. With thoughts of him, her anger broke. She linked to the light and hope flooded into her. She let it come and embraced the feeling of love that grew within her soul. When she felt as if she might burst from the overwhelming power of the emotion, she connected to the firmament and embraced it.
The love she felt was bigger than the draw of the firmament, even when she stared it straight in the face. She cast her shield spell using Slyder orbiting high overhead as her point of reference for motion. Her shield sprang to life just a moment before Gabriella cast a light-lance spell of her own. The brilliance of the light was dazzling but the heat of it never reached her. Her shield held.
Gabriella stopped and stared in disbelief. “How can this be?”
The triumvir raised her hand again, muttering an angry chant. An orb of blackness formed before her outstretched hand. Isabel heard a collective gasp from the onlookers as Gabriella released the dark magic. It hit Isabel’s shield and seemed to drain the magic from it, until only a moment later, it sputtered out and vanished, leaving her vulnerable and still pinned to the ground.
She clung to the hope of the light and cast her last, best hope for survival. Her Maker’s light spell stabbed out from her hand and hit Gabriella’s shield, driving through it as if it wasn’t even there. The light flooded into Gabriella and a strange expression ghosted across her face, as if she was remembering something vitally important that she had forgotten long ago.
Gabriella raised her hand and tried to cast another spell at Isabel but stopped with a look of sudden concern just as a shadow was cast across her from behind. She turned to see Asteroth, her faithful steed, land within striking distance. Gabriella faltered at the sight. She had been bonded to Asteroth for nearly a hundred years. He was loyal to her and yet he stood poised to strike.
Isabel shouted the command into Asteroth’s mind, “Kill her!”
The wyvern didn’t hesitate. His bone-bladed tail whipped over his head and drove through Gabriella’s shield and into her chest, cutting her in half with a single strike. She toppled over with a stricken look of shock, terror, and surprise.
The grass abruptly released its hold on Isabel and she struggled to her feet even as Asteroth tipped his head back and roared with the realization of what he’d just done. His bond was broken and he was feeling lost and alone. Isabel reached into his
mind and imposed her will on him once again, this time to comfort the beast and to win his loyalty. She imprinted herself on him and assumed Gabriella’s place as his rider.
When she stood and patted Asteroth’s giant jaw, the assembled crowd fell deathly silent. When she mounted her new steed, the Sky Knights collectively dropped to one knee.
Isabel faced the two remaining triumvirs from atop Asteroth. “Gabriella is dead. I claim the title of triumvir and I confirm my right to the title of Lady Reishi.”
To punctuate her proclamation she touched the minds of every wyvern in the fortress island and issued a single command: Roar!
Chapter 29
Alexander’s eyes flickered open. He was in a stone room with no windows but ample light. He felt cold, not like the cold of exposure but deeper, in his bones. Chloe flitted up over his face and smiled at him with a mixture of worry and relief before she buzzed off to find Lucky.
The earth shook and a rumble reverberated through the stone of the floor. Lucky came to his side a moment later, along with Jack.
“Lie still, Alexander. You’ve been out for about an hour,” Lucky said. “How do you feel?”
“Cold . . . and empty,” Alexander said as his hand went to the bandaged wound on his neck. “What’s happened?”
“We retreated into the underground chambers beneath the ruins,” Jack said. “That wizard has been pounding the mountain with lightning for the past hour. Jataan reports that the entrance we used to get in here has collapsed but the passages go deeper into the mountain, so there may be another way out.”
“Is everyone all right?” Alexander asked.
“Evelyn was injured by the revenant’s bite,” Lucky said. “She fell unconscious but woke several minutes after I applied healing salve to her wound. I gave her a healing draught and she’s resting quietly. You, on the other hand, are not healing and I’m worried that my magic isn’t powerful enough to overcome the revenant’s bite.”
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