“We are out of time. Just carry her,” I said.
I turned and blasted a hole through the door and the protective warding. Through the newly-created hole I saw four of the five sorcerers who had kidnapped Flame. Now that I could get a look at them, I saw they were only apprentices and fairly low-level ones at that. This made sense, since they had had to blend in with prospects when they were hiding at the Academy.
“Shield her; we need to take them out fast,” I sent to Phoenix. I watched him erect his blue-green turtle-shell spell over her and pull two wands from his robes.
“Let’s do this!” he sent.
“Blast away, I will cover you,” I sent as I built a shield wall between us and the sorcerers, who were beginning to cast spells.
Phoenix dropped to one knee and started firing both his wands in rapid succession. Energy bolts were flying from the wands at great speed and with deadly accuracy. I had heard rumors from his classmates of his skill with wands, but this was the first time I had seen him in action. He had a mastery over them that I had not seen among wizards with three times his years.
The sorcerers gave up their attempt to attack and tried to dive for cover as bolt after bolt slammed into their shields. There was not even a hiccup as he drained a wand, tossed it aside and drew out another.
I resisted the urge to help him with this battle. I knew he needed to fight this one alone. These foul ones had bested him once, and I knew that he blamed himself for the kidnapping of Flame. This was his chance to make them pay, and he would get a measure of healing out of it.
Energy bolts were not deadly when used one or two at a time, but they had a nasty ability to multiply in power when many of them were cast in chains as Phoenix was doing now. Soon they overwhelmed the sorcerers’ defenses, and one by one they fell to Phoenix’s barrage.
“Well done, Phoenix,” I sent. “But one is missing.”
Phoenix leaned against the wall breathing heavily. He was not in the best of physical shape, and the mental stress of his focus on the wands was evident. “There!” he sent.
I turned towards where he was pointing and saw the final sorcerer. He was much more powerful than the others. There was a darkness weaving around him which he had under perfect control. Before I could stop him, Phoenix jumped up and threw a mighty fireball at him. It was of far greater power than the bolts from the wands, but exploded harmlessly on the sorcerer.
“Phoenix, get her out of here. I will handle him,” I said.
I knew that Phoenix wanted to argue, but he teleported away. Once they were safely gone I turned to face the sorcerer and said, “So you finally show yourself. I have been waiting.”
“You presume too much. We have been watching you since you left on your foolish journey to rescue her,” he said.
“Foolish? I would not say that; so far it has been a great success,” I said. I needed to buy Phoenix time to get on a jump ship to Alpha Academy. Bill had promised one would be waiting, but it all depended on me keeping the sorcerer busy.
“It is a shame I will have to kill you. You show much promise,” he said and raised his staff.
I did not wait to see what spell he would cast. Still wielding my sword I charged in, full tilt. Power began to gather around him as I swung my sword down. He nimbly blocked with his staff, and there was an eruption of power around us.
I continued to press an attack with my sword of power, and he stumbled back, blocking with his staff. A certain joy began to build in me as my superior strength pounded him back. My attack was unconventional for a wizard, but proving very effective. Every hit on his staff blasted free more power. If I kept this up long enough the staff would run out of power, and then my sword would cut right through it and kill him.
Darkness wrapped its arms around me as I continued to beat him back. The pain that my blows were causing him brought a sick sense of joy. He had held Flame prisoner and I would make him pay, and pay dearly.
The darkness continued to surround me, but not in attack; it was almost as if it were cheering me on as I beat back this sorcerer. Something inside me screamed out in alarm, from deep inside, so deep that I could not lay absolute claim to it. With a swift kick to his chest I sent the sorcerer flying away from me and looked around. There were huge holes in the walls of the station, and as I spread my awareness out I saw that our fight was slowly ripping the station to shreds.
“No!” I screamed as I realized I had been tricked into nearly destroying the station.
The sorcerer stood up and said, “Yes! Now you see that you cannot defeat us!” He lowered his staff and called out a command word, which caused a beam of pure, black light to launch towards me.
I blocked the beam with my sword of power, but it was too much for me to hold. Slowly but surely the beam was overcoming my defenses. Soon I was forced to my knees as he continued to press the attack.
“Come now, you can counter this beam. You know you can,” he said. “Reach out and take the power of the station and strike me down!”
I screamed under the pressure as the darkness began to press in on me, and his beam continued to pound against my sword. I knew then the plan. If I called on the power of the station to help me, it would lose structural integrity and Alpha Academy would be blamed for destroying the station. If I did not, then the sorcerer would kill me, destroy the station, and lay the blame on Alpha Academy. Either way, tens of thousands would die and their blood would be on my hands. On top of that, it would be grounds for Aleeryon and all its allies to declare war on Alpha Academy. I could not let that happen.
“They are only mundanes. Think of what happened to Flame. Tap your anger, Shadow, and overcome me,” he said.
“No!” I screamed. Then I cried out in my head, Stop thinking in the physical only, and start acting like a spellweaver! I reached out and took hold of the power of his beam and began to bend it back on itself. Soon I was able to stand again, and fear came over his face for the first time as I bent all the power he had turned on me back on him. “I do not need the power of the station; you have provided me with plenty, foul one!”
Even the darkness that was around me was just a form of energy; I turned that back on him, and soon his own power consumed him. As he fell backwards his body caught fire, and a noxious gas filled the room. I tried to pull on my helmet but it was a mangled mess from the battle, as was the rest of my armor.
I tried to run for the door, telepathically calling out, “Help!” as my world faded away.
Epilogue
Meanwhile, back in the dark room made completely from stone the seven magi stood around the stone pool. In the pool they watched Shadow’s fight with the sorcerer with static vigilance. As Shadow fell to his knees under the power of the sorcerer’s attack, the magus with the deep blue hood remarked, “If he falls, so do our plans.”
“No, they would merely be delayed. Moreover, he is not beaten yet,” said the red-hooded magus.
They continued to watch as Shadow turned back the sorcerer’s attack on the sorcerer himself. There was no visible reaction, but the impression of a suppressed desire to cheer.
“He has bested a sorcerer of much greater rank. Impressive,” said one of the magi.
“The fight is not over yet,” said the blue-hooded magus.
The scene in the pool showed the sorcerer collapse under Shadow’s counter-attack. They continued their stonelike watch as Shadow fumbled for his helmet and collapsed before he could reach safety.
Soon guards from the station poured into the room wearing full body armor and helmets. They found Shadow and carried him out of the room to waiting medics. The medics placed a mask over Shadow’s face and began to treat his wounds.
“So he has won,” said the blue-hooded magus.
“Yes, that he has,” said another magus.
“They will no doubt promote him for this, and that will unlock much greater potential in him,” said another.
“That may be, but the battle ye
t continues,” said the red-hooded magus as he raised his hand and spoke a command.
The scene in the pool shifted to show a large battlefield. In the center of the battle there was a tower, which appeared to be the prize that was being fought over. A large force made up of foul-looking creatures had completely surrounded the tower and were using various primitive and magical siege weapons to attack it. There were no visible forces to defend the tower.
The tower was very oddly shaped, and somehow gave the impression it was not really sure it should be a tower. It seemed to move of its own accord in response to the attacks launched at it. It bent and twisted as needed so that the vast majority of the attacks flew past it to land in the attacking army’s own forces which were deployed on the opposite side.
Eventually the tower seemed to get quite fed up with all this dodging and split itself into dozens of single towers, each as tall as the original but barely wide enough to fit even a spiral staircase to travel up to the top.
The towers fell over as one, and the attackers began to cheer. Their cheering was cut brutally short when the towers started to roll outwards from the point where they had once proudly stood. They rolled right over the attacking army. This devastating rout sent the entire remaining army fleeing to all corners of the world. Soon the battle was over and the tower had won. It reassembled itself and promptly vanished.
“That one cannot be trusted,” said the blue-hooded magus.
“Yes, but the outcome was still favorable,” said the red-hooded magus.
The scene in the pool shifted again, this time to show Master Kellyn leaning over Flame in what looked like a cargo shuttle. Master Kellyn glowed softly pink, but the image stayed only a moment before the liquid burst into flames.
The smoke rising out of the fire was forming into an image of Grandmaster Vydor as the red-hooded magus moved with great speed and cast a spell that snuffed out the flames and the image. In a moment the pool was still, and all signs of the image were gone.
“Fool!” called out the blue-hooded magus. “You nearly gave us away!”
“It matters not. It is time for us to make our move,” said the red-hooded magus as he left the room.
One by one the others followed him, leaving the pool alone. Once they were gone the pool briefly pulsed purple and red, and one could almost hear a chuckle.
###
The story continues in Rise of Shadows where Shadow must build and train a team of wizards to venture out of the safety of their fortress to discover the source of the strength behind the powerful pirate forces that have taken control of the majority of space around Alpha Academy. This quest will put them on the road to discover a dark truth about their realm’s past that none had ever even imagined.
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Also by Vincent Trigili:
The Silverleaf Chronicles
The Silverleaf Chronicles: Season One follows the life of Silverleaf, a young dragonmaster who was born into a world without dragons, and doomed to die as a madman alone in the wilderness until a young woman enters his life, and a mysterious army marches across the land destroying all its path.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Time Line So Far
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Epilogue
Also by Vincent Trigili
The Academy Page 26
