Balestone

by Toby Neighbors

  “Sano Frebricula Reducto, Sano Frebricula Reducto.”

  Rafe’s eyes opened, but Tiberius kept reciting the spell. It would take his friend time to regain his strength, but he was coming around. Tiberius felt his own body cooling off, and when he felt normal again, he released the magic. His chanting over, he looked down at Rafe.

  “I feel better,” he croaked.

  “We’ve got a long way to go,” Tiberius said, ignoring the angry rumble in his stomach. “The raiders pillaged the camp and tried to burn Olyva at the stake.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “Yes, Lexi rescued us. I failed in my attempts.”

  “You’re awake,” Olyva said. She had moved to the side of the wagon so quietly that Tiberius hadn’t heard her approach.

  “Tiberius worked a healing spell,” Rafe managed to say.

  “It was just a fever reducer,” Tiberius said. “I don’t know if the symptoms will come back or not.”

  “Here,” Olyva said, reaching for the pitcher of water. “I scraped some of my bark into this barrel last night. It won’t be at full strength for several more hours, but it might be enough to counteract the poison.”

  She took the pitcher and dipped it into the barrel. Then she helped Rafe drink. He was weak and trembled with the effort to sit up.

  “Olyva, the raiders will be coming soon. Do you think you can take the wagon away from here?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “What are you going to be doing?” Rafe asked, his voice barely more than a hoarse whisper.

  “I’m going to stop the raiders, if I can.”

  “I’ll stand with you,” Rafe said bravely.

  “My good friend,” Tiberius said. “You are a strong warrior, but at the moment I doubt that you can stand on your own at all.”

  “He saved my life,” Lexi said.

  Tiberius turned. He hadn’t seen her wake up, but she was standing behind him with her new pet perched on her shoulder.

  “Did we wake you?” he asked.

  “No,” Lexi said. “Dancer alerted me. The raiders are coming.”

  “Dancer?” Tiberius asked.

  The little animal chirped proudly.

  “Okay, well, we need to get you all away from here. Olyva?”

  “I’ll lead the horses,” she said.

  “I’ll stay with Ti,” Lexi said.

  “No, it isn’t safe,” he urged.

  “I’m not leaving without you.”

  “It’s better if you stay with Rafe. He can protect you if I fail.”

  “The horses are exhausted, Ti,” Lexi said. “We won’t get far if you fail. We have a better chance of surviving if we stay together.”

  “She’s right,” Rafe croaked. “Olyva, help me up.”

  “You should rest,” Tiberius said.

  “There isn’t time. I may not be strong, but the raiders don’t know that. I beat Bu’yorgi once. He won’t soon forget it.”

  “Okay,” Tiberius said. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”

  The wagon was led away, and Olyva stood with Rafe. He was still drinking from the pitcher of water that she had given him, and Tiberius was amazed at how rapidly his strength seemed to be returning.

  Lexi had thrown the little creature she called Dancer high into the air, and Tiberius watched the animal rise higher and higher on invisible air currents. He was amazed at what Dancer could do and its strong attachment to Lexi, but he would have to wait to learn how the two had come together. A small group of raiders were jogging toward them.

  “Ultimus Conspectus,” Tiberius said.

  His vision shot forward, and he could make out the men moving toward them. There were six in the advance group, all carrying clubs. The rest of the raiders, nearly forty in all, were spread out behind. Tiberius guessed they would wait and see what would happen.

  “What’s our best case scenario here?” Rafe asked. “I mean, are we ever going to rest while these bastards live?”

  “I don’t know,” Tiberius said, still studying the men with his magical sight.

  “How many are coming?” Rafe asked.

  “Six to begin with. They look nervous.”

  “They should,” Rafe said, drawing his sword.

  “Save your strength,” Tiberius said. “There’s almost forty waiting to see what happens.”

  “Lambs to the slaughter,” Rafe said.

  “They think I need Moswanee’s staff to work magic. I let them take it from me last night.”

  “And what happens if your big show of power doesn’t stop them?” Rafe asked.

  “Then we fight, I suppose.”

  “We could leave,” Lexi said. “They might not want to chase us, and we have the wagon.”

  “But the tribe,” Olyva said. “They’ll die without fresh water.”

  “Won’t the raiders save them?” Rafe asked.

  “Only to make them slaves,” Tiberius said. “I don’t like the idea of leaving.”

  “We could leave the water and take the horses,” Lexi explained.

  “Let’s see how they respond to this first,” Tiberius said.

  He let his sight return to normal. He was still very hungry, but he felt stronger than he had the night before. He walked forward, leaving his three companions and focusing on the approaching hunters. They were brave men, and Tiberius guessed that they had been so successful in their raids that they had grown overconfident. Te’sumee, leader of Tiberius’ own Rogu, had argued that killing wasn’t the Hoskali way. Yet Bu’yorgi had tried to kill the entire tribe by poisoning the water supply. If Olyva hadn’t been able to make her medicinal draught, Tiberius would have surely died. He had been helpless, and the raiders obviously had no concern for their fellow Hoskali, so Tiberius would have no concern for the lives of the raiders.

  “Accendo, accendo, accendo,” Tiberius chanted.

  He felt the invisible realm of magical power opening and he clamped his mind down hard on the portal, ensuring that nothing escaped his control. The magic heaved and bucked; it reminded Tiberius of a houndsman with all his dogs on the leash. He had seen how the hounds, eager for the hunt to begin, would tug at their leashes and their master would struggle to hold them back. Tiberius was the master now, and no matter how badly his fiery hounds wanted to be set free, he couldn’t allow it. Magical might was all about control, and Tiberius was determined not to fail.

  He moved the portal in the sky. It was tricky pushing the portal with his mind, trying to gauge the distance. The further the portal moved away from him, the harder it was to control, but he didn’t give up. Sweat poured from his head, and his legs felt weak, but he continued to chant the spell.

  “Accendo,” he said slowly, “accendo.”

  Then, when the small group of raiders were only a hundred yards away, Tiberius opened several small holes in the barrier between the magical realm and the physical world. Flaming balls fell like hailstones from Rastimus’ death forge. The fire burned through the air, leaving trails that marred the amber sky with oily black smoke.

  One of the first fiery balls landed just in front of the raiders. They stopped running, frozen with fear. Tiberius raised his arms so that the raiders could see that he was the source of the fire. Then the fire was dropping all around them. One of the raiders was hit squarely, and his whole body was consumed in flame. The screams were horrific, and for a moment Tiberius’ resolve wavered. But the raiders were racing back toward the camp, and the entire episode only lasted a minute. Several of the men were burned, but alive. Two had been consumed by the firestorm. Black smoke and small fires obliterated the open plain between Tiberius and the raiders.

  He turned back to his friends. Olyva looked horrified. Fire had become a fearful entity to her, and she was shocked to see it falling from the sky, even if she knew that Tiberius had conjured it. Rafe and Lexi both looked stunned. They had never seen Tiberius work such powerful magic and they were shaken by the sight.

  “Come on,” Tiberius said. “We haven
’t got much time.”

  The others nodded and hurried back to the wagon. The poor horses were beginning to look weak after their hard journey, but Tiberius knew that Rafe couldn’t walk far, and the tribe needed the fresh water.

  “The smoke will hide our escape,” Tiberius explained.

  “What if they follow us?” Rafe asked.

  “I don’t think they will, not for a while anyway. We can move a few miles away, then circle around and drive them out of the camp.”

  “I wouldn’t follow that,” Lexi said. “I would run the other way.”

  “They might,” Tiberius said thoughtfully. “But the sick tribe members are their best defense. They know we won’t risk killing our own tribe, so they’ll feel safe in our camp.”

  “What if they kill the tribe members?” Rafe asked.

  “Then there’s nothing to stop me from raining fire down on their heads and killing all of them.”

  “Could you do that?” Lexi asked. “I mean, I know you can do the magic, but would you kill them all?”

  “They tried to kill us,” Rafe said.

  Rafe was sitting on the bench seat of the wagon, while Tiberius, Lexi, and Olyva walked beside it. The horses moved slowly, but they were moving, and Tiberius felt like his plan had at least a glimmer of hope.

  “I don’t know,” Tiberius said. “It’s hard to think about killing people.”

  “I killed the man who clubbed you last night,” Lexi said softly. “When I came into the camp, he didn’t see me. I stabbed him with my dagger from behind.”

  “They all deserve it if you ask me,” Rafe said. He was drinking from the pitcher of water that Olyva had concocted in the night and he seemed more himself every moment. Even his voice was growing stronger. “When a man picks up a weapon and attacks another man, he puts his life on the line. When those Rogu raided our camp, they forfeited the right to live. Every soldier knows he could die — it’s the cost of taking another man’s life. You have to put yours on the line, as well. Otherwise it’s just murder.”

  “But I was too far away from the raiders to be harmed,” Tiberius said. “My life wasn’t on the line. And Te’sumee says that killing other Hoskali isn’t their way.”

  “We’re not Hoskali, are we?” Rafe argued. “No, we’re from Avondale. We’re free men of Valana, and maybe you weren’t in danger at that moment, but you certainly have been. They could have killed you in their raid. They would have tried to kill you if I had lost the Tuscogee. And they almost killed you with the poisoned water.”

  “What bothers me about the water is that they must have poisoned it before the Tuscogee,” Lexi said. “They were planning on this.”

  “She’s right,” Rafe said. “You got sick too soon after the fight for it to have been retaliation for losing.”

  “Bu’yorgi set things in action as soon as his raid failed,” Olyva said. “He’s a vile man.”

  “You should have let me kill him,” Rafe said.

  “Perhaps, but that wouldn’t have saved the tribe from the poisoned water,” Tiberius said. “And we’ve been trying to operate according to the traditions of the Hoskali.”

  “But now we’re in a fight for our lives and theirs,” Rafe went on. “I don’t see how we can keep from slaying all of Bu’yorgi’s men. If we let them live, they’ll follow us. They’ll get past the fear and come after us again. I know how men like that think.”

  “All we can do for now is follow the plan,” Tiberius said. “We have an obligation to save the tribe. We have to get this water to them and soon.”

  “Well then,” Lexi said. “It looks like we’re in for a long walk.”

  “You think they’re following us yet?” Rafe asked.

  “Dancer will know,” Lexi said, as she flung the small creature back up into the air.

  “You want to tell us about your new friend?” Tiberius asked.

  “And what happened to you and Rafe in your search for water?” Olyva added.

  “It’s a long story,” Lexi said.

  “Like you said, we’re in for a long walk,” Tiberius said.

  Lexi shared her story, emphasizing Rafe’s part in fighting the raiders who tried to intercept them. She had barely seen the creatures chasing her in the night, so she told that part of the story with as few details as possible. Then she told them how she had found Dancer.

  “Hold on,” she said in the middle of her story.

  She leaned on Tiberius and was unsteady for a moment.

  “Lexi?” Tiberius asked. “Are you okay?”

  “She is — wait and see,” Olyva said.

  “They aren’t following us yet,” Lexi said with her eyes still closed. “Most of the raiders have gone back to the camp. I can’t tell for sure from this distance, but it looks like they’re arguing.”

  “How do you know that?” Tiberius asked.

  Lexi opened her eyes and immediately became more steady on her feet.

  “It’s Dancer,” Lexi said. “I can see what she sees sometimes.”

  “What?” Rafe asked.

  “How?” Tiberius wanted to know.

  “I don’t know how,” Lexi explained.

  She continued her story about rescuing the furry creature even as Dancer spiraled down and landed gracefully on Lexi’s shoulder. She stroked the little animal on the head.

  “She bonded with me somehow. I can’t explain it. She sends me images when she's flying and seems to understand what I’m saying most of the time. Don't you, girl? Yes, you can understand.”

  “That’s astonishing,” Tiberius said.

  “And a little creepy,” Rafe chimed in.

  Dancer chirped angrily at Rafe, and everyone laughed.

  “I told you she understands,” Lexi said.

  “I think she’s adorable,” Olyva said.

  “We better take a break,” Tiberius said. “We don’t want to wear out the horses, and without food we’ll get pretty tired by the end of the day ourselves.”

  They stopped the horses, and Lexi took them water. Tiberius sat on the tail of the wagon and watched her. He couldn’t believe how strong she was. Olyva climbed up and sat beside Rafe.

  Tiberius was still bothered by Lexi’s question. Could he have killed the entire group of Rogu? Had they marched after Tiberius and Olyva en masse, he would have been tempted. He could have dumped fire from the portal like a dragon, burning them all alive. But the two men who had died had screamed so horribly. Tiberius didn’t think he would ever forget their cries of agony as they burned. He regretted killing them. Perhaps they deserved it, perhaps not — the morality of the act wasn’t the issue, it was the decision.

  Tiberius knew that his father could order a man killed or exiled from Avondale, which was essentially a death sentence. His father wasn’t a wizard, but the power they both wielded was the same. Tiberius’ power came from knowledge and self-control; his father’s had been passed down generation after generation. The earls’ power was granted by the people of Avondale, and it was a sacred power, the highest honor a man could receive. Tiberius’ power was magical, but it had very real effects. People could see what Tiberius was capable of. They could witness his strength, and if they tested him, his power was real enough to stop them.

  But was it right to use that power to take another person’s life? Tiberius had already done that. He had killed the sentient trees the Hoskali called the Hosscum. He had slain the huge beast the Hoskali called a Draccon, or at least rendered it unconscious so that Rafe could kill it. Tiberius hadn’t killed Moswanee, but he had taken the man’s place as chief of the tribe and cast him out alone. Tiberius began to wonder if he was really any better than his father. He could argue that he was doing it to protect his friends and even the tribe, but that didn’t assuage the guilt he felt over killing the raiders.

  “You look like a man with a lot on his mind,” Lexi said as she settled beside him.

  Dancer was digging through her pack for the last crumbs of the mealy bread she had eaten on the
trip back from the river.

  “I’m thinking about your question,” he said.

  “What question?”

  “Could I really kill the raiders? I still don’t have an answer.”

  “Maybe you don’t need one,” Lexi said. “I admit seeing your magic sometimes bothers me. I’m afraid of it, but I’m not afraid of you.”

  “I was taught as a child that, if a person is good, he will use his strength for good,” Tiberius said. “We were encouraged to be strong, but I never really was. At least not the way my brothers were. My father thought we should all be warriors.”

  “You’re stronger than a whole tribe of warriors, Tiberius.”

  “But I had to break the most sacred law of Valana to have that strength.”

  “Sometimes doing what you believe to be right — even if you’re the only person that believes it — takes incredible courage and strength. The law about magic is wrong. I see that now. I’ve seen you do wondrous things, Ti. And I know you’re a good person. Probably the best person I’ve ever met.”

  “It seems like a good person could find a way to do the right thing without hurting others,” Tiberius said.

  “There is nothing wrong with protecting yourself or the people you love,” Lexi said. “From my experience, a person who isn’t willing to fight for what they want won’t get it and will probably have someone else take what they have.”

  “I was a little naive, I guess,” Tiberius confessed. “I expected us to fight animals like graypees or worse, but I didn’t think I’d be forced to kill people.”

  “What do you think will happen when you confront the princess?”

  Tiberius remembered how easily she had snapped his leg. He had gone to her quarters, and she had levitated him, then broken his leg without even uttering a word. It had seemed so easy for her. And she had no qualms whatsoever about inflicting pain. She had broken his leg just to see if he could really heal himself. The thought of it made him shudder, even though it was a hot day.