The Spell Realm

by Zales, Dima

  And she was right. Though she could not completely read his mind, she felt echoes of whatever emotions he was feeling. Blaise was not happy with her. In fact, he was so angry that she found his emotions distracting to her calm state of mind. Not wanting to lose control, she tried to dull the connection a bit. Blaise would be in the background of her mind, she decided, so she could keep a mental eye on him this way. In the meantime, she would focus on other matters.

  Thinking back to the birds, she wondered why their flight pattern had been so erratic.

  Suddenly, she felt Blaise’s emotions changing from frustration to fear. Her heart jumping in response, Gala opened her eyes and saw a rockslide heading for her. Relieved, she realized that Blaise was afraid for her, that it was his worry she was sensing. It was needless worry, she thought, her mind still dwelling on the puzzle of the birds’ unsteady flight.

  As expected, the rockslide heading for her changed direction, Gala’s reflective spell pushing it back toward its origin. Amplifying her vision, Gala watched the rocks go up the canyon wall toward a small figure—a figure that immediately disappeared from that spot.

  Now it was clear to her. The person who had cast the rockslide spell had teleported to another location. The rockslide hit the original spot where her opponent had stood, but didn’t do him any harm.

  She had not calibrated her reflective spell finely enough to account for teleportation, Gala realized, finally comprehending why the birds had been flying so erratically. The Council members were teleporting around the canyon to avoid being hurt by her spells.

  At that moment, a barrage of attacks came at Gala from all different directions, distracting her from that thought. Lightning bolts, ground shaking—it was like she was back in the middle of the storm, and it was becoming impossible to breathe calmly through it all. Gala wanted to yell at them. Didn’t they realize that if they upset her, it might mean their own doom? That if she lost control, it could end badly? On some level, she understood that retaliating at them directly would not be all that different from what her reflective spell was doing, but she still preferred it this way.

  All of sudden, the attacks stopped. Before Gala could relax, however, she felt echoes of Blaise beginning some kind of struggle in the house.

  Chapter 41: Blaise

  His heart beating furiously in his chest, Blaise stared at the scene in front of him.

  On the far end of the canyon, surrounded by rocky slopes, stood Gala. She looked calm and serene, the way she’d been when fighting the storm. The Council members were at the top of the canyon, spread out all around her. In a couple of places, Blaise saw the black, coal-like shine of their Interpreter Stones. They’d come prepared, and he had no doubt that their offense was planned with deadly precision.

  He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but whatever it was, he would need his own Interpreter Stone.

  Turning, he rushed upstairs, remembering that he’d left the Stone in his study. The spell didn’t prevent him from going up. However, once he grabbed the Stone and the spell cards he’d prepared for their trip and tried to leave his study, Gala’s cursed spell kicked in again.

  Now, however, Blaise was better equipped to deal with it. A quick written spell, and he teleported himself out of the room in one piece. He was taking risks today, doing the teleportation spell with so little deliberation; normally, he would’ve triple-checked his calculations, but there was no time for such meticulousness.

  Running back to the front door, Blaise saw Moriner again. To his surprise, the Councilor was in a completely different part of the canyon at this point. Blaise frowned. The only way to cover such distance so quickly was by teleporting. It looked like Blaise wasn’t the only one working with this dangerous spell today. It was strange that Moriner was taking such risks, however, given his advantageous position.

  Just then Blaise saw Moriner finish a spell, and slowly a giant rockslide began to move toward Gala. The weathered rocks of the canyon broke apart from the mountain and rolled down, gathering greater mass and momentum on the way. Moriner seemed to be directing and magnifying the slide, causing it to move faster and faster.

  Blaise felt a wave of fear, but before he could do anything, Gala glanced up toward the rocks. A moment later, the rockslide stopped and then started moving in the opposite direction—up the mountain. Blaise was astonished. There were reflective spells that could repel attacks, but he’d never witnessed anything of this scale and potency. As the rocks slid upward, they gathered speed until they were rushing at Moriner with the same force as they had been falling at Gala. It was an eerie sight.

  Right before Moriner would have gotten hit with the mass of stones, he disappeared.

  Surprised, Blaise surveyed the entire canyon. Where did Moriner go? He could see the others, and then he spotted Moriner again—on the opposite end of the canyon. The mystery of the Councilor’s quick relocation deepened. Blaise did not see Moriner do anything with his stone, and the Councilor hadn’t had time to speak any spells. How had he teleported?

  Another Interpreter Stone flashed darkly in the sunlight, and Blaise focused on its owner, Kelvin. The man’s face was a mask of fury; he hated Gala, Blaise realized. True to his specialization, Kelvin was trying to manipulate the weather—an attack that didn’t particularly worry Blaise, given Gala’s recent encounters with the storm.

  Still, he watched anxiously as a few clouds slowly gathered above Gala. Predictably, two small thunderbolts hurled toward Gala from the clouds. The thunder reverberated through the canyon, deafening Blaise for a moment.

  To his surprise, Gala didn’t react—and then he realized that she didn’t need to. Whatever spell she used to hurl the rocks back at Moriner was still in place, and the lightning sharply reversed direction, shooting for Kelvin instead.

  Kelvin also disappeared just in time.

  The sky was again bright. Blaise frowned. He didn’t see this Council member say or write anything either.

  Continuing to observe the events in the canyon, Blaise began making his own preparations. He liked the concept behind Gala’s reflective barrier, and he had an idea how to write a spell that would work similarly. It might not be as potent, but it could be quite helpful.

  As he wrote the code, he continued keeping an eye on the battlefield. By mere chance, his gaze came upon Jandison. The old man was clearly trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible, hiding behind a rock.

  Sharp fury rose within Blaise, nearly choking him from within. This was the man responsible for Louie’s death—and for the Council moving about with such ease, Blaise realized with sudden clarity. Jandison was the foremost expert at teleportation, and he had to be the one using his skills to transport the other Council members. He was moving them around like game pieces after their attacks on Gala.

  Before anger could cloud his thinking, Blaise suppressed any thoughts of Louie. As sweet as revenge would be, he needed to focus on helping Gala first.

  Taking a deep breath, Blaise surveyed the field again.

  No sign of Ganir. Why hadn’t the old man warned him that the Council was on the way? Had he sided with them after all? It didn’t seem like that was the case; Ganir’s absence from the fight spoke volumes. Of course, Blaise also couldn’t locate Augusta, whose loyalties were not in doubt. Though he couldn’t see her, he felt her hand in this. His former fiancée had always been good at strategy, and he was certain that she had something to do with planning these teleportation moves. Where was she? What was she plotting?

  Turning his attention back to the reflection spell, Blaise finished it and loaded it into his Stone. Then, deciding to use the Council’s own strategy against them, he immediately began working on a teleportation spell. This could be a way to help Gala and get his own revenge, Blaise thought with grim satisfaction.

  The spell worked without a hitch, teleporting a confused Jandison into Blaise’s house. Now the enemy was within reach, although most likely protected by a shield.

  Not giving his oppo
nent a chance to catch his bearings, Blaise hit Jandison with a heat spell. The spell did not go through—nor did Blaise expect it to—but it did seem to weaken the old man’s shield.

  Finally realizing what was happening, Jandison scrambled for his own Stone. Seeing that, Blaise tried to distract him with questions while reaching for a partially completed attack spell of his own. “How did you do it?” he demanded harshly. “How did you change the vote?”

  Jandison’s mouth fell open. “What . . . How did you . . .” he sputtered.

  “Don’t bother lying to me,” Blaise said angrily, managing to write on the card at the same time. “I know the truth now.”

  The Councilor’s expression slowly changed, a sly look appearing in his eyes. “Well, if you know, then I guess there’s no harm in telling you,” he said, apparently recovering from his shock. He was also multi-tasking, his hands riffling through his bag. “I created a teleportation vortex from one of the boxes to the other,” he explained, and the note of pride in his voice fed Blaise’s fury.

  “Why?” Blaise spat, quickly scribbling the last lines of code. He wished he could rip the answer from the old man along with some inner organs. “Why lie to me before?”

  “I wanted you to have a falling-out with Ganir. He’s the one I have a problem with, not you,” Jandison said without a hint of shame. “I always liked you—I hope you know that. I’m sorry things worked out this way, but perhaps we can still find a way to reach an understanding . . .” As he spoke, Jandison’s hands were loading his own spell.

  At that moment, Blaise finished his spell too, and without any hesitation he unleashed it, the rage inside him boiling out of control.

  Blaise’s creation hit Jandison first. It was a bone-crushing, though not lethal, spell. Had it reached its target, Jandison would be in agony, but alive. The idea behind the spell was to penetrate Jandison’s shield, which might have been designed to withstand only lethal attacks.

  To Blaise’s disappointment, Jandison’s shield held—and at the same time, Jandison’s own offensive spell went into effect.

  Objects started to fly at Blaise, everything from paintings to statues that stood in the hallway. As they reached Blaise, they were deflected by Blaise’s recent spell, flew at Jandison, and landed at the Councilor’s feet, defeated by the powerful shield the old man had at his disposal. Then they flew at Blaise again, over and over, bouncing between his shield and that of Jandison, with more objects joining in the assault with every second.

  Blaise could see that his reflective barrier would not be able to take this onslaught for long. Glancing frantically around the room, he saw the green sword-like thing—the needle that had traveled to the Spell Realm and back—flying at him.

  Knowing full well his reflection spell was in its last throes, Blaise readied himself for a desperate stunt. Jumping to the side, he caught the needle-sword with his right hand. It was sharp, and he could feel it slicing through his palm, seemingly to the bone. The pain was stunning, but he refused to give in to it. Without any hesitation, he hurled the needle-sword at Jandison, loading a healing spell into his Interpreter Stone at the same time. He hoped the distraction of the hurled object would give Blaise a chance to heal.

  To his shock, instead of harmlessly bouncing against Jandison’s powerful barrier, the sword penetrated it, spearing Jandison right in the chest.

  Jandison’s last expression was that of complete and utter shock. Blaise couldn’t blame him. A shield that powerful should have been impenetrable to any physical attacks. Clearly, the sword was something more than a failed experiment.

  Before Blaise could think about it further, however, a flash of bright light turned everything white.

  Chapter 42: Barson

  The day of reckoning had arrived.

  Rising from his bed, Barson swiftly pulled on his armor and grabbed his weapons. Dara was already awake and had food sitting on the table when he came downstairs. Larn was present too, his expression hard and filled with tension. There was nothing else to talk about, nothing to discuss.

  It was time to act.

  Though Barson was not hungry, he forced himself to eat everything Dara put on his plate, knowing he would need his strength for the bloody ordeal ahead. Then the three of them headed to the Tower, where the rest of Barson’s men were already waiting.

  It was close to midnight, and the entire Tower was asleep when the soldiers entered the halls. The inhabitants of the Tower relied on defensive spells to guard them at night—spells that Dara and Barson’s sorcerer allies had figured out how to neutralize in recent weeks. Without those spells—and the Guard on their side—the sorcerers were essentially unprotected.

  At Barson’s signal, his men spread out, breaking up into small groups.

  The takeover of the Tower had begun.

  Chapter 43: Augusta

  Augusta hid outside Blaise’s house, listening intently with her spell-improved hearing. Frowning, she tried to make sense of what she’d heard. Jandison had done something with the vote? Blaise knew about it? She couldn’t even begin to wrap her mind around such an incredible story. She would have to get to the bottom of it, but for now, she needed to focus on the task at hand.

  Augusta had a couple of reasons for not coming to Jandison’s aid. First and foremost, with him out of the battlefield, she had to focus all of her attention on plan B, the fusion spell. She also needed Blaise weakened, as a contingency if Plan B failed, and a confrontation with Jandison was sure to accomplish that. Besides, if what she just heard was true, Jandison had made fools of her and the rest of the Council, and he deserved whatever Blaise did to him.

  Turning her attention to plan B, she focused on the fusion spell. It was dangerous, and Augusta had hoped to avoid using it. Now, however, it seemed inevitable. The creature was too powerful, deflecting all of their usual spells with ease. Even the expression on its face was calm and serene, as though it didn’t care.

  No, they had no choice but to use the fusion spell, and to do so now. Implementing it required coordination between most of the Council. With Jandison out of the picture, they couldn’t afford to lose any more Council members. Augusta had been the one to figure out the logistics behind such coordination. It involved Contact spells prepared in advance. Each Councilor had a pair of other members they would Contact—a primary choice and a back-up.

  Her heart beating frantically in her chest, Augusta loaded her spell, which was to go to Moriner, her back-up for Jandison. He would Contact his primary choice—Gina—who would Contact Furak, and so on until the cards were loaded with precise timing and order.

  Though she knew she’d done the calculations correctly, Augusta still felt uneasy. They were fighting hubris with hubris, and the consequences of any errors could be catastrophic. The fusion spell was a work of terrifying beauty, harnessing the power of the sun and the stars. The energies about to be unleashed were unimaginable. To Augusta’s knowledge, nothing of this magnitude had ever been undertaken in the history of Koldun. But, as terrifying as the spell was, it didn’t frighten Augusta nearly as much as the abomination they were fighting—and she was confident that the powerful barrier they’d built to contain the spell would hold.

  Watching the battlefield, Augusta used a simple spell to protect her vision. Though the barrier was supposed to protect them from the harmful effects of the spell, she calculated that some minute percentage of light was going to escape. Given the forces at play, she didn’t want to risk being blinded.

  As the spell began to take effect, a shimmering sphere about a hundred feet in diameter formed around Blaise’s creature. This was the barrier. Whatever earth it touched at the bottom section of the sphere was pushed aside, creating a crater underneath the creature’s feet. That didn’t faze Blaise’s monstrosity at all. Instead of standing on the lower layer of the sphere, it was floating in the air, inside the spherical bubble, still looking inhumanly calm.

  And just as Augusta noted these details, the fusion spell went into effe
ct, and she saw a dazzling explosion of light.

  Chapter 44: Gala

  Gala felt torn. She wanted to help Blaise, but if she rushed to the house right now, it would become the focal point of the Council’s attack. The sensation of helplessness, of being unable to protect the one she loved, was unbearable. Gala could feel her calm beginning to slip, her heart starting to beat rapidly in her chest.

  And at that moment, she began to feel something strange—some unprecedented spell being cast. She’d noticed she could sense magic before, but she had never felt anything of this caliber. Many people were working together—working on something big.

  In the meantime, Blaise continued to fight in the house. Grimly Gala struggled for control, determined to be the master of her sorcery, rather than its puppet, but her fear for Blaise was too strong. Her mind racing, Gala felt the last remnants of her calm disintegrating as her emotions took over.

  At first, she again experienced the illusion of her mind leaving her body. Only this time, it was different, more physical. She saw herself from a vantage point high in the sky. It was as if she was seeing the canyon through the eyes of a bird—and that’s exactly what was happening, she realized. Somehow her subconscious mind had connected with that of the birds that attacked her earlier.

  It was strange, like she was in two places at once. She could see the faces of her attackers from high up in the air, and at the same time, she saw a shimmering sphere surround her body from both her own and the bird’s viewpoint. And from high up again, she saw herself floating in that glowing bubble. It was something she hadn’t even realized she was doing.

  There was something ominous about the bubble that surrounded her—a subtle threat that she couldn’t fully understand yet. She also felt tiny changes in her body, like there was another spell attaching itself to her. She was about to examine it further when she felt the first powerful blast of energy inside the sphere that encased her.