Storm Callers: Age Of Magic - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Storms Of Magic Book 1)

by PT Hylton

“Oh, no!” Viktor looked horrified. “It’s cleaned daily. We’d never let dust accumulate.”

  Fannar shook his head angrily. “Another example of King Elias wasting resources. You and the other students lived like paupers while this luxurious room sat unused just in case he decided to show his face here.”

  “Actually it’s not one room, it’s several.” Viktor smiled proudly.

  “Lovely.” Abbey smiled tightly. “So why are we here?”

  “A few reasons,” the Storm Caller answered. “First, it’s one of the few rooms in the school with a bolt on the door. They’ll have to chop that thing down to get in here, and it’s solid oak. Second, it’s our way out.”

  Olaf clapped him on the back. “I knew I could count on you.”

  Viktor raised an eyebrow. “On the way in here, you said I was a fool who was going to get us all killed.”

  Abbey tapped her foot impatiently. “Olaf reserves the right to amend his opinion at all times. Now show us how we’re getting out.”

  Viktor led them through a door at the end of the room into a bedroom that was even more beautiful than the sitting room. He explained as they walked. “The king is rather, what’s the word? Paranoid. He’s a fan of secret passages and secret exits. This is one of those.”

  He moved one of the tapestries aside and pressed a stone near the floor. At first it only moved a little, but he leaned hard against it, pushing with his full weight, and it slid back to reveal an opening large enough to crawl through. Reaching in, he pulled out a torch, a flint, and steel.

  Once the torch was lit, he turned to the group. “Ready?”

  “Wait, I’m confused,” Olaf stated.

  “A common occurrence,” Abbey interjected.

  Olaf ignored the comment. “If you knew this was here, why didn’t you escape? Why were you just waiting around for us?”

  A shadow fell across Viktor’s face. “As you’ll soon see, this route isn’t easy. It was built as an ‘in case of emergency’ thing for King Elias. And it will only get us down to the third guard tower, so I would have had to fight my way down from there.”

  He moved into the tunnel, and the rest of the group followed. Oddly, it wasn’t raining in the tunnel, though they could still feel the thunder occasionally rattling the school.

  “Besides, where would I go? The king would hunt me to the ends of the world and kill anyone who helped me. He probably still will, now that I think about it.” He gestured toward the ground. “Olaf, would you mind picking up that rope? We’re going to need it.”

  ***

  Two Barskall warriors stood on either side of Dustin, each gripping an arm. Thankfully they were the only two who hadn’t drunk their seiderdrek; otherwise, he would have been seriously concerned that the edge of the steps was so close.

  He looked at his staff on the ground. So close, yet still out of reach. The amphorald was surely recharged by now. If only he had it, he could blast Dahlia over the edge and end this thing once and for all. Granted, the Barskall warriors would probably send him over a few seconds later, but being dashed on the rocks would be worth it just to wipe that smug smile off her face.

  Dahlia was stormcalling, the end of her staff submerged in the bucket of seawater and her eyes aglow. It might have been funny had it not been a life-and-death situation.

  As far as Dustin could tell she was conjuring a storm inside the school, which seemed like an idiotic use of power to him. It was more likely to aid his friends in trying to hide than to assist the warriors searching for them.

  However, he had a feeling this wasn’t about being effective. Abbey, Fannar, Olaf, and Viktor were trapped in the building, and there was no other exit. She wasn’t worried about them escaping. This was a display of power, pure and simple.

  Most of the Barskall warriors had already rushed inside to find his friends. Only a handful remained, most likely to defend Dahlia just in case.

  In addition to the people who’d escaped into the school, Dustin was just as worried about the one who hadn’t. Clemens.

  When the Barskall warriors surrounded them, things had happened quickly. Dustin had put up a fight and managed to knock two warriors down, though he hadn’t been able to do any permanent damage.

  Dahlia had shouted that she wanted Dustin taken alive and the warriors had rushed him, dogpiling on top of him to subdue him. By the time they hauled him to his feet, Clemens was nowhere to be seen.

  Dustin thought the most likely scenario was that Clemens had been pushed over the edge of the mountain during the fighting. It hurt even to think about that possibility; Clemens was kind of an asshole, but he was their asshole.

  Dustin said a silent prayer to the sea that the man was all right.

  Four Barskall warriors rushed out of the school, soaking wet, and ran up to Dahlia. “Ma’am, we found something. A door that’s bolted from the inside.”

  Dahlia looked at them, her glowing eyes adding gravitas to her gaze. “Show me.” She took her staff out of the bucket, and her eyes immediately returned to their normal appearance. She turned to the warriors gathered around her and nodded toward Dustin. “Bring this traitorous Storm Caller.”

  Dustin wanted to object that her calling him a traitor was a bit of a stretch, but the men on either side began hauling him forward before he had a chance.

  It was no longer raining inside the school, but the stone floor was wet and the rain was still running down the walls. Dustin wondered what Dahlia’s display had accomplished, other than making a big mess.

  Probably not much.

  A little way in they came across a Barskall lying in an impressive pool of blood, his head about ten feet from his body.

  Dustin whistled. “Looks like things aren’t going so well for your boys, Dahlia.”

  “We’ll see,” she answered grimly.

  Dustin silently wondered which of his friends had demonstrated the strength to lop off a head in a fight. The only one who might have been able to do it was Fannar, but his seax didn’t seem up to the task of succeeding in a single strike.

  They made their way down a twisting hallway until the warriors finally stopped at a door.

  “This is it, ma’am,” one of the warriors told her. He pushed on the door to demonstrate that it was bolted.

  Dahlia nodded at the door. “What’s in that room?”

  The Barskall warriors blinked at her dumbly. None of them answered, their seiderdrek-fueled aggression barely restrained.

  “You’ve got to be shitting me,” Dahlia barked. “Can we please find someone who knows the layout of this building?”

  A few minutes later a small man in a guard’s uniform approached, his head bowed. “Ma’am, this is the door to the king’s chambers. We keep them ready for him in case he wishes to spend time here.”

  “Huh.” Dahlia kept her eyes on the door, not bothering to look at the man. “Can you think of any reason Viktor would hide in here?”

  The man thought for a moment. “It’s one of the few doors with a bolt.” He hesitated for a moment and then added, “And I don’t understand how Viktor could have known about it, but there’s also a secret passage.”

  Dahlia spun toward the man. “Where does it lead?”

  ***

  Viktor led them out of the secret passage into a brightly lit room.

  The storm had stopped, and Abbey put her hands on her back and stretched. The room was larger than the king’s chambers, but it was absolutely empty. The only features were a closed single door on one end and double doors on the other.

  Viktor made his way toward the double doors. “Follow me.”

  As they walked, Olaf spoke. “I have to ask, Viktor. How the hell does a prisoner know about a secret passage in the king’s chambers?”

  Viktor sighed. “I’ve been here a long time. Long enough to see three of the king’s appointed schoolmasters come and go. I trained the students, but the schoolmaster oversaw everything else. The first master was cruel. The second was kind. Perhaps too kind, or
at least the king seemed to think so. He and I became, what’s the word? Ah, yes—friends. He showed me things he shouldn’t have.”

  They reached the double doors, and Viktor pulled them open.

  Abbey blinked against the harsh sunlight streaming in. After traveling through the tunnel by torchlight, it took her eyes a moment to adjust.

  Outside was a balcony, and its floor was a pool of water much like the one in the classroom.

  “What is all this?” Fannar asked.

  Viktor stepped into the water and breathed a sigh of relief, as if happy to be in his element. “It’s a pool. The students and I would practice stormcalling here. There’s nothing like practicing on the open water.” He gestured past the end of the balcony to the sea, which spread southward.

  Abbey stepped into the ankle-deep water and walked to the edge, then peered over the rail and looked at the mountain below. “Are those the steps?”

  Viktor smile. “Yes. Now you see why the rope will be handy. I suspect one would break a significant number of bones if he were to simply jump.”

  The drop had to be at least a couple hundred feet. Abbey nodded toward the massive coil of rope Olaf was carrying. “That thing’s long enough?”

  “It was placed in the secret passage for that sole purpose, so one would assume.” Victor pointed at something down on the mountain. “That’s a guard station. We’ll have to get past three of them.”

  Abbey nodded. “I’ll take that over facing a hundred and twenty Barskall in this school any day. Olaf, bring that over here. Let’s get moving.”

  They tied the rope to the edge of the balcony and dropped the other end. It reached the steps far below with a few feet to spare.

  Abbey turned to Viktor. He didn’t exactly look like the rope-climbing type, and she couldn’t imagine his daily routine in the school involved a lot of physical exercise. “You going to be able to do this?”

  “Yes. Almost assuredly. Probably. One would hope.”

  Olaf rolled his eyes. “Let’s just do it.”

  Fannar went first, climbing down the rope quickly and confidently, his feet doing most of the work while his hands provided balance and support.

  Viktor went next. His climbing style involved desperately clutching the rope and letting gravity pull him down. Abbey winced at the rope burns the man must be getting.

  When Viktor reached the bottom, Olaf looked at Abbey. “You’re next.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  When Olaf argued, she pulled rank and ordered him to go.

  Abbey watched as he descended. She still hadn’t told her friends about her new magical skill, not that there had been a lot of time. Besides, it wasn’t the type of thing that came up in casual conversation. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it herself.

  Olaf reached the bottom, and Abbey swung her legs over the edge of the balcony. She had just gotten a good hold on the rope with her feet and both hands and was ready to start down when suddenly the door at the end of the room burst open and Dahlia charged through it.

  “Shit!” Abbey shouted. She briefly considered climbing back into the pool, but then she saw the horde of Barskall warriors following close behind Dahlia. That made her choice for her: down it was.

  Dahlia stepped into the pool and immediately started stormcalling. A huge wind slammed into Abbey; she’d only descended a few feet, but she managed to hang on to the rope.

  Up on the balcony, she saw Dustin being held between two Barskall warriors just as he’d been outside. She wanted to talk to him, to tell him she was proud of him and the way he’d performed on this mission, even if he had ended up getting captured.

  Abbey loosened her grip as much as she dared and began descending.

  Then everything happened at once.

  A Barskall warrior, clearly high on seiderdrek, charged through the pool and dove over the edge.

  Dustin slammed his forehead into the nose of one of the guards, then slipped out of their grip and ran toward Dahlia.

  The falling warrior crashed into Abbey. She tried to hold onto the rope, but there was no chance. She lost her grip and tumbled toward the rocks below.

  She only had a moment to think as she fell, but she desperately clutched at her own body and concentrated, envisioning a feather.

  Something inside her shifted, and she was suddenly light.

  Would it be enough to save her? She didn’t know, but she had to try.

  A moment before she hit the ground, a wind came at her from below. The draft carried her upward, back toward the balcony.

  She didn’t fully understand what was happening, but she drew her sword.

  For one wonderful moment, she realized she was riding the wind. This was as close to flying as anything she’d ever imagined.

  Then she soared to the level of the balcony, and the reality of the situation came back to her.

  Dustin and Dahlia were both holding Dahlia’s staff, and both their eyes were glowing.

  Abbey swung her sword at Dahlia, missing by mere inches.

  Then a Barskall warrior grabbed Dustin, and the wind below her weakened. She began to sink.

  “No!” Abbey shouted.

  The last thing she saw was Dustin trying to hold onto the staff while two warriors pulled him away.

  Abbey continued sinking as the wind beneath her disappeared, and she fell the last fifteen feet to the mountain steps below.

  Once she realized she was still alive, Abbey stood up and brushed herself off.

  Olaf ran to her. “Abbey, you okay? Were you just flying? How the hell did you do that?”

  She ignored the question and stared at the balcony high above. Only one fact mattered: Dahlia still had Dustin.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “We have to go back,” Abbey announced, her eyes fixed on the balcony. “They have Dustin and Clemens.”

  In truth, she wasn’t sure about Clemens. It was very likely he was already dead. But Dustin… There was no way she was leaving him behind.

  Olaf and Fannar exchanged a glance.

  “You have a problem with that?” Abbey asked sharply.

  Surprisingly, it was Olaf who answered. “Going back would be suicide. There’s no way Dustin would want you to do that.”

  “Olaf’s right,” Fannar agreed. “We got what we came for, and now we have a massive bargaining chip.”

  “He means me,” Viktor offered brightly.

  Fannar ignored the comment. “Dustin and Clemens’ best chance is for us to escape and negotiate from a position of strength.”

  Viktor interjected again. “If you really want a position of strength, you should rescue all the Storm Callers. That would really tick Dahlia off. I can show you where they took them. Dahlia will be headed there eventually anyway, because she’ll need all those Storm Callers for her big attack on the Storm Wall.”

  Abbey blinked hard. A big attack on the Storm Wall?

  Olaf clapped Viktor on the back. “When we get off this mountain, we’ll have to sit you down and have you tell us everything rather than just waiting for it to come up in conversation.”

  “Probably a wise idea,” Viktor agreed.

  Abbey took one last look up the mountain. She was still in charge of the mission, and if she ordered Olaf and Fannar up there they’d go. But they were right. Attacking the school they’d just worked so hard to escape would be pure foolishness.

  She’d get Dustin back even if she died trying, but first she needed to get Viktor off this mountain. “You’re right. Both of you.”

  Olaf nodded. “Of course we are! Don’t sound so surprised. Now back to my question about you flying—”

  “They’ll be coming after us,” Abbey interrupted. “We have to get moving.”

  Without waiting for a reply, she raced down the stairs toward the next guard station.

  The six guards were ready for them, waiting on the stairs below with their swords drawn.

  “Make this quick,” Abbey called to her team. She knew that the g
uards’ goal would be to slow them down so the Barskall warriors above would have time to catch up. They couldn’t let that happen.

  Ten feet above the guard station, Abbey leaped into the air. As her feet left the ground she made herself lighter, soaring much higher than she’d normally be able to jump. Then, at the crest of her jump when she was directly above the guards, she increased her weight to twice its normal amount. She held her body arrow-straight and slammed feet-first into one of the guards, who crumpled to the ground.

  Abbey was behind the other guards now, and she hit them from one direction while her teammates attacked them from the other. Viktor tried to help, but Fannar pushed him back out of the fray. He was unarmed, and he didn’t seem to be much of a fighter anyway. It was too risky for him to get involved.

  Fannar quickly took down two guards while Olaf and Abbey dropped another one each. The three of them then made short work of the one remaining guard.

  “Let’s go,” Abbey ordered. She wished she could have let them take a breather, but that would have been exactly what Dahlia needed, so they kept moving.

  Viktor picked up a fallen guard’s sword.

  Abbey raised an eyebrow. “You know how to use that thing?”

  He gave it an awkward swing that displayed all the athleticism of a geriatric turtle. “I’ll manage.”

  She doubted that, but now wasn’t the time to question his abilities. They took off running down the steps.

  The journey down went much faster than the upward one had, so it wasn’t long before they made it to the next guard station.

  The six guards there didn’t fare any better than their peers at the first guard station. Even Viktor managed to get in a killing blow, though the guard was on the ground and had already been fatally wounded by Fannar.

  Olaf nodded toward the school. “Abbey, look.”

  She shielded her eyes against the sun and gazed up the path. A mass of Barskall warriors were sprinting down the steps, and some of them were almost to the first guard station already. As she watched, one of the warriors took a bend in the path a bit too fast and tumbled over the side.

  “Madness,” Fannar declared quietly. “She’s sending men on seiderdrek down that trail? She’ll lose half of them.”