by Guy Antibes
“I’m sorry, then.” Asem gave the man a Santasian salute and turned his back to him.
He heard the scraping of a chair on the wooden floor and turned as the man attempted to pose. Asem threw his knife at his chest. The man crumpled as he slid his sword out of his scabbard. “Stay seated,” he said, but his words had little affect on four magicians who were defenseless while still sitting in their chairs.
Asem heard a scuffle behind him, but didn’t turn around. He charged the magicians. A woman rose and Asem slammed his sword into her hand. She sat back wailing, but he couldn’t stop another of them posing quickly and immobilizing him. He fell stiffly to the floor as a fireball careened over his falling body from the man’s hands towards the table he had just vacated.
~
Trak looked back at the empty alley as they tied up their horses.
“It’s the,” Honor counted the roofs, “fourth one down.” She narrowed her eyes as if steeling herself from whatever she would have to do.
Trak drew his sword and held it close to his body, tip pointed down along his leg as they walked purposefully towards the gate that led into the back of Sunbeam’s establishment. Honor led him inside the gate.
“This is a general shield,” she assumed a pose.
“That’s in my book.” He mirrored her stance. “The power word?”
“Wista”
Trak broke his stance, “Wista,” he said and nodded to her.
Honor shook her head. “You did that perfectly. Sometimes I hate how easily poses come to you, but I’ll make you pay for your expertise later.” She gave him half a smile as they slid up to the door. A tiny window gave Honor a glimpse inside. “Malena is working in the kitchen.”
“Perhaps this will be easy,” Trak said.
“Nothing is easy. She will certainly be magically restrained. Use ‘worry’ on her as soon as we step inside.”
Trak nodded. Honor slowly pushed down on the door latch, but the door was locked. He could hear her grind her teeth.
“Nothing is easy,” she muttered in exasperation. “Break the door down. I’ll destroy my shoulder again if I try.”
Trak instantly thought there was a story to be told, but they had no time to lose. It was past time that Asem would have entered the restaurant. He slammed into the door and bounced back.
“Magic.” Honor shook her head in disgust. “Back,” she said as she assumed another pose, said another word and the door turned into splinters.
Malena had already grabbed a kitchen knife and held it out at them. “You!” Trak could see the confusion in her eyes.
“Worry!” As soon as he said it, Malena crumpled to the floor, the knife cut into her leg.
Honor looked down. “No time for that.”
Sunbeam walked into the room carrying an empty tray. Her eyebrows shot up and put her hand to her mouth. Honor instantly struck a pose and spoke a word and the traitor joined Malena on the floor. Something hit the door.
“Fireball.” Honor said. “Make a shield as soon as we get into the room.” She peeked into the dining room through the flames on the door. “They are close to the door. The guild magicians are at the other end.”
Trak nodded. He didn’t waste any time. He jumped into the room and quickly assumed the pose. “Wista!” He moved towards Asem’s crumpled figure. Valanna held her arm, smoke still rising from the cloth on her sleeve.
Kulara glared at him, but turned and threw a white jagged lance of energy at the remaining woman. The energy shattered against a shield that one of the two standing men still held.
Trak moved towards the guild members and kept saying, “Wista, wista, wista,” as he walked slowly towards the magicians, shuffling in the pose. The guild members kept throwing fire and lightning like Kulara had used. Wind began to blow, nearly knocking Trak down, but he continued until his shield pushed the magicians back like a physical shield.
He noticed Honor come up to his side. She mouthed the word ‘sword’. Trak didn’t know the pose that went with that word and then it dawned on him what she wanted him to do as she assumed the shield pose.
She said, “Wista.”
Trak didn’t waste any time drawing his sword and stabbed at the magicians. The shields that they assumed didn’t stop steel. He disabled them all.
Kulara ran to the helpless magicians as Honor posed and put them to sleep.
“Malena.” Trak said. He put his hand to his head and found a chair and sat for a moment to gather his strength. He walked past Valanna and took her hand. “Into the kitchen.” He nearly dragged her along with him. “Find a clean rag and get it wet.”
Valanna nodded. Her eyes were vague but she found something to press against her burned arm. Trak knelt at Malena’s side and looked around for a towel. Valanna tossed him the one that she used.
He put the towel around the knife still embedded in her leg and pulled it out. The towel soon became soaked with her blood.
Kulara walked in and gently pushed him away. “See to my husband.”
He noticed Rasia’s comatose body on the floor beside Asem’s. He checked her and sighed with relief when he located a pulse. He dragged Asem and Rasia together on the floor. He didn’t know what else to do but check them out for any physical injuries. He didn’t find any, and then he locked the door and closed the curtains. Honor had the presence of mind to spell out the fire on the still-burning door.
Trak looked down at the comatose pair. “I don’t know what to do?”
Honor narrowed her eyes. “You can ‘worry’ about it.”
He shook his head. “Is that the universal solution to everything? I didn’t know about ‘worry’ until the night I was taken and now I’ve used it a lot.”
She shrugged and pointed to Asem and Rasia. “You get to use it again.”
“Worry,” he said looking down at them.
Rasia’s eyes popped open. “Spell backwash?”
“Neither of us knows since we were in the kitchen, but it is likely.”
Rubbing her forehead, Rasia sat up leaning on one hand. “It’s been awhile.”
“Let’s hope it is a while longer,” Honor said, helping the woman to her feet. “See how Kulara is doing with Malena.”
Asem gasped for breath and then relaxed. “Not pleasant,” he said as he slowly sat up. “I suppose we won the battle.”
“Not without casualties,” Trak said. “Kulara is fine, but we had to knock out Malena and she cut herself in the leg. Valanna burned her arm.”
Asem looked over at the pile of guild magicians. “Do we just leave them here?”
“I would,” Trak said. “We should bind the worst of their wounds before we go.”
“What makes them any different from the bandits?” Asem said.
“I know one of them.” Trak looked on the relaxed face of Bodega, the blue master, slumped against a chair, a sleeve bloody from a stab wound given by Trak. “He never treated me badly.”
“Still an enemy.” Asem said.
“And I am not a killer,” Trak said. He could say that truthfully since he didn’t end up killing the bandits, but he wondered what he would be before this mess was all over.
~
Honor bought a cart, which they used to transport Malena and a bound and gagged Sunbeam, who had finally come to on her own. They left going north towards Espozia and then backtracked to the west, avoiding the woods where they were waylaid before.
Asem made sure that the cart had most of the food in Sunbeam’s larder as well as the cooking pots and anything else that could be easily transported. Honor told him that Sunbeam would never return to Gorinza. Rasia had offered to end Sunbeam’s life, but neither Honor or Asem would permit it. Sunbeam might have valuable information. Rasia argued for a quarter of an hour with them, but finally agreed not to do anything after some serious threats from Honor.
They brought along the two horses that the magicians had tied up in front of the restaurant for Malena and Sunbeam. All felt anxious as they looked t
o the east seeing the silhouette of smoke rising from the chimneys of Mozira. The largest set of plumes rose from the multi-storied Magicians Guild house. Asem looked at Malena and Trak. Both of them had haunted looks as their eyes drifted towards the town.
They hadn’t stopped since they left Gorinza. Asem would drive them on as far and as fast as he could. From here until they reached the hidden path that would take them over the mountains rising in the distance as they traveled south, two of the riders would rest in the cart for a few hours at a time. Rasia insisted they would reach woods by mid-morning. Then they could stop and get a proper rest.
He preferred to ride the whole way. Asem knew how to endure. He’d done it often enough in the Arid Lands and for days, not just hours. Valanna had shown more grit than expected when she offered to continue to ride while Kulara and Honor chose to ride in the cart. Rasia drove the cart over the fields, deftly moving from track to track to hide their trail through the farmland.
It wouldn’t really matter. The guild knew where they would be headed. Their only advantage would be if the guild didn’t know about the alternate route. Honor said she didn’t think the guild did, but there might be someone in Mozira that knew about it.
An hour later, the moon rose in the sky, giving them some light to navigate by. Asem noticed Trak’s head bobbing. He was tempted to let the horse just follow them, but he decided to get to know this prodigy.
“I noticed your wrist work when you used your sword on the magicians.”
Trak blinked a bit and then nodded. Asem could hardly make out his face. “You are a magician—“
“Of sorts. Enough to do a few things, but I have to rely on precision in my poses to make up for my lack of power.”
”Well, if you cut their hands or wrists, then they can’t maintain a pose. It is a weakness to be exploited.”
Asem snorted. “If you can get close enough.”
“Honor helped.”
He nodded to Trak, but the boy didn’t see Asem’s gesture. “She did. Maybe I made a mistake having Rasia knocked out.”
“You what?”
Asem chuckled for a bit. “Kulara put her to sleep. She has no defenses against magicians and we decided to put her away if it became a magician’s duel. But she might have been useful, if we knew about your shield technique. Did they teach that to you at the Magicians Guild?”
It was Trak’s turn to chuckle. “No. I just figured that I’d try it. Honor had to remind me to draw my sword.”
What an astonishing boy, and brave, too? “Why did you think it might work?”
He could barely make out a shrug. “I have confidence in my strength. I figured that if I could get close, then their spells couldn’t get behind me. I was right. If that didn’t work, I could just back up. It worked, but Honor put up her shield and I was able to take them out with my sword.”
Asem had never heard of a powerful magician willing to use a weapon. Everyone wanted to control Trak, but they had no idea what kind of person this boy was. Someone had done an excellent job raising this Trak Bluntwithe. Not only did he have unique innate talent, but also he had courage and imagination. He would be wasted in a Magicians Guild and, he had to admit, he wouldn’t have been able to rise in the rigid tribal hierarchy in Warish.
The instincts that Asem relied on all of his life had turned out to be excellent in seeking out this boy. This time anyway. Kulara could remind him of his failures, which weren’t many, but they did exist.
“How did you learn to use a sword like that?” Asem asked his original question again.
“Oh, my fa— one of my father’s friends is an excellent swordsman and began to teach me the forms as soon as I could hold a pose.” Trak laughed. “Not a magician’s pose.”
“I understand.”
Trak looked at him. “I suppose you would. It’s a talent that I developed. Everything I did, I converted into forms. I like the sword the best, but the staff forms are the prettiest. I never used a real weapon until I worked with Misson Dalistro. Then he set up a group class with a weapons teacher. Everything sort of came together.”
Asem could see that it did. The forms led to precise poses. Everything linked up to create this impressive boy. He had unlimited potential. Prince Nez couldn’t compare, in any way. The boy had passion, feelings, courage and, maybe most importantly, massive power, if Honor could be believed.
Trak had fallen in with excellent mentors. Asem had heard of Neel Cardswallow. The man had changed his name, but Asem knew who he was. Of course he knew of Honor Fidelia, too, a double spy.
Asem knew Misson better than the other two. Perhaps if Asem had a counterpart anywhere in the world, it would be Dalistro. He knew him as an honorable spy, working for his father, but he knew Dalistro had his own agenda, just like him. At that moment Asem wished he could sit down with Misson with a large bottle of wine and trade stories. He knew that they would agree with their assessment of Trak.
“Asem.” Kulara called from the wagon. He smiled. It was time that they rode together in the wagon for a while.
~
Someone shook Trak awake. “We have visitors!” Malena said.
Trak rubbed his eyes as the cart threw him back and forth. Val brought his horse alongside. “Get on your horse. Asem said that all of us have to split up.”
Trak blinked more sleep out of his eyes, but jumped onto his horse while both of them moved. He had become a better horseman, but didn’t appreciate the circumstances of his equestrian education. Trak turned the horse around and rode back to Asem and Honor who were looking back.
“Pursuers? How far away?” he said.
“Maybe half an hour. The woods are just about that far ahead of us, but that won’t be any help. A clear battleground is better.”
“But we can make a stand in the trees,” Trak said. “Valanna and I can blow them down.”
“That might not be enough,” Asem said.
“Do we have a choice?” Honor looked behind them and then at Trak. “Can you kill?”
“If they will kill me.”
“Fat chance,” Asem said. “You are worth your weight in jewels, young man, but the rest of us are all expendable.”
“Can I draw them off?”
Honor shook her head. “They will be on us by the time they know who is who. That assumes that Borega has been revived and can recognize you.”
Trak scratched his head. “Then I will fight. If I have to kill them, then that will be because they are out to capture me and kill my friends.”
Asem grinned. “I thought you’d give us that answer.” He looked at Honor. “Go to the wagon and see if you can pose on a moving wagon.”
“That is dangerous!” she said. “A bump or a turn at the wrong time and the pose may kill me or any on the wagon.”
Trak looked back and put his hand on the hilt of his sword. He had an idea blossom as he saw the dust cloud of their pursuers. “Let’s see if we can make it to the trees. If there are magicians, Rasia and you need protection. If they are fighters, then Rasia can fight and the other three need to flee.”
“Not quite true. Kulara and Valanna are very strong. Not like Honor, but likely as strong as any of those.” Asem nodded to the advancing riders. “But I agree on getting into the trees if we can. Let’s get going so we can turn and fight at a place of our choosing.”
The three of them urged their horses on. Trak’s horse was fresh. Asem took another mount and tied the other horse to the string and handed it off to Kulara. The horses would ride faster led by her and the horse on the cart, who was relatively fresh, as well, wouldn’t have the drag of the string.
They picked up their pace, but still, their pursuers were catching up. The forest began to grow, as they got closer. Trak rode past the first few trees and then jumped off of his mount. “We will stand here!” he said.
Asem stopped to face the oncoming riders.
Trak counted eleven mounts. The horses would just about be blown, but he knew they would have caught
up to them. Honor and Kulara stood away from the wagon that Valanna had parked behind a thicket of trees.
With fists clenching and unclenching, Trak reviewed what he had to do. He would use a pose he had never actually matched up with a power word before. Lightning. The magicians had thrown it back and forth in their fight at Sunbeam’s. He hoped that his version would save them all.
When he could make out the men’s faces, he raised his sword and made the pose. He threw all of his will into the power word and a sizzling bolt of lightning flew from the end of his sword. Just as he thought, the sword greatly enhanced the aim of his spell. Trak took a deep breath to aid his concentration and ran the lightning from side to side. His bolt began to burn into the horses, so he raised the beam and mowed down the rest of the riders.
The would-be abductors didn’t rise. A few horses neighed in pain and others just stood as their riders had been obliterated.
“What was that?” Asem said.
“Something new.” Trak looked at the carnage. “Something awful.” He let the sword drop from his fingers. He didn’t have anything left within him so he just collapsed to the ground.
His ears registered a scream behind him. He rose on his knees. He lacked the energy to gain his footing. Kulara and Honor shot fire bolts towards the horsemen who had outflanked them. One of them escaped the women’s magic, carrying a woman with them.
Trak couldn’t help. He could barely stand. He used his sword as a cane and staggered towards the wagon.
“Valanna! They took Valanna.” Kulara said. She mounted her horse, but Asem grabbed the reins. “We have done enough,” he said, his voice nearly breaking. Trak could tell letting her go was very difficult.
“But you brought her here.” Honor said.
“She came because she could recognize Trak. Her mission is over.”
“No!” Trak said. He stumbled and fell on the ground. “No.” He couldn’t gather the strength to get up and weakly pounded his fist on the dirt. “No.”
~~~
Chapter Thirty
