His eyes flared in the shadows. "Do you really mean that?"
I nodded and then bent down to adjust a bootstrap, more to busy my hands than anything else. When I finally straightened I saw Darren watching me, a strange expression on his face.
It made my blood pound loudly in my ears. I bit down on my lip, hard. My eyes were glued to his and I was hit with an overwhelming desire to close the distance between us, to reach out and take his hand in mine…
"You still have feelings for the prince."
"It's Ian that I want."
Was it? Was it really?
"Ryiah." Darren suddenly dropped my gaze, looking anywhere but my face. "If things were… If they were different-"
"Help! Help!" The silence was broken by screams coming from the other side of camp. Darren and I immediately broke into a run.
We caught up to the rest of our faction to find several Mahj soldiers retreating from the northern trail, large burn marks up and down their arms. And blood. Lots of blood. It was pouring down their faces, chests, legs, everywhere.
I immediately felt sick.
"The raiders," one of the men wheezed, "they have magic!"
"O-only ten of them," a woman soldier coughed. "But too much power! And t-too many!"
"Where's Master Byron?" Caine's cold voice rang out clearly. "We have to help!"
"He's with the Ishir regiment." Darren took a step forward. "They needed help recovering the southern mines."
"I-it's not the southern ones the raiders are a-attacking now!" another soldier choked. "We can't hold them off – not without mages of our own! We can't wait for reinforcements and they are destroying our mines!"
"Then we will help you." Darren spoke decisively.
"Thank you." The man collapsed to the ground.
****
I saddled my horse with trembling hands. I suddenly didn't feel so sure of myself. All this time I had been so eager to fight and now I didn't know why. There was nothing exciting about battle and any injuries I got now would not be so quickly attended to. Any one of us could die out there.
I tried to calm my frantic nerves as I checked the reins and tucked my sickle blade into its curved sheath, hiding a dagger in the padding of my left ankle. Thankfully I was dressed for battle. I was already wearing pale linen breeches and a riding shirt that was the norm of the desert peoples. I tightened the belt at my waist and wished vaguely desert fighters wore armor. I felt exposed with no chainmail and only a thin wooden shield to carry. Desert nomads and raiders fought by agility and wore clothing suited to their environment.
I hope that still applied in winter.
"Ryiah!" My twin came stumbling into the stables, fear written all over his face. "Tell me it's not true! Tell me you and the rest of your faction aren't going after the raiders without Byron or Commander Ama's men to protect you!"
"I have to." I mounted my mare, trying to look more confident than I felt. "Byron and the rest of them are held up at the southern mines. We just got report that the northern ones are being attacked – the ones we supposedly recovered two nights back, and they've got mages, Alex. One of the Mahj soldiers told us so right before he died!"
My brother didn't look happy. He looked angry. "Ry, you need to wait for the regiment! You don't know how many mages they have!"
"They'll kill the others!" I burst. "We have to try and help-"
"But what if they kill you?" Alex cried. His eyes glistened and he was white as a sheet. "Or Ella?"
I tried to be brave. "They won't." I felt guilty leaving him so distraught, but Alex was Restoration: he would have to learn to deal with this fear – especially since his sister and the girl he loved were Combat.
I would have to learn to leave him behind.
****
We had been riding for almost an hour when we finally spotted something in the distance. At first it had been hard to see anything in the darkening of night, but eventually the twinkling desert landscape began to reveal itself.
"There!" Caine pointed to a herd of slaughtered camel. There were heaped in a pile of bloody carcasses next to a pair of toppled caravans and just further west were two large mile-long pits surrounded by chunks of rock and large sprawling slabs of white. The northern salt mines.
Almost everywhere were deep fissures that continued to spread, rattling the earth as they ripped across the flat salt beds, scattering Mahj soldiers as they went.
Just in front of the mines was a blood bath. Young men and women were sprawled across ditches and sand, caked in blood and nursing their injuries.
There were still about twenty soldiers standing, attempting to avoid the quakes. They fought to press a handful of darkly clad raiders back. Away from the precious mines and their valuable resource.
They were losing.
The raiders continued to draw closer, only ten in their midst but undeniably dangerous. I could see bright flares of magic spilling from their hands as they continued to target the earth – more focused on destroying the mines than the men fighting them. Already one of the mines had collapsed.
White mists scattered the sharp desert wind. It made no sense. Why were the raiders attacking the mines? How could ten untrained individuals possess so much magic - unless they really were mages as the locals had claimed?
The raider-mages didn't bear Caltothian or Jerar mages' robes. They were dressed in loose desert garb, muted browns and blacks with hoods that fell over their eyes and scarves that left the rest of their face hidden from view. It must have been how they'd been able to sneak up on the Mahj regiment undetected. Blending into the night as the red desert sun left its sky behind.
One of the raiders spotted us. "Leave us!" His voice echoed across the expanse. Magic amplified the volume of his voice. "I give you the same choice we gave these men here. Return to your camps and we will let your people live!"
"Relinquish our mines and we will let you live, you filthy bandit!" Caine hollered back. He had assumed the role of command as the highest ranked fifth-year in our group. His stallion fidgeted nervously under the trembling ground, clearly wanting to go anywhere but where his rider was leading him.
"This land belongs to the Crown." Darren had brought his horse forward to join Caine at the head of our party.
"You?" The gruff raider looked surprised. Then he smiled wide, white teeth flashing. "Well this is unexpected." He laughed hoarsely and roared to his companions: "Friends, the orders have changed: kill them all! Do not let that young princeling escape!"
A thundering roll broke from above and the sky lit up. Screams filled the air as the Mahj soldiers nearest fell to the ground, writhing. Bright yellow shards of lightening tore across the air, crippling each man and woman they touched.
In an instant the remaining soldiers had fallen. Twenty quivering bodies thrashed against the sand as flesh and bone exploded, covering the air with a thick, crimson mist that reached our line up a quarter of a mile away.
"What have we done?" Ella's voice quavered. I didn't know how to answer. Fear had taken complete hold of my body. I clutched the reins, hands trembling and panic coursing through every inch of my skin. Hysterical sobs were threatening to break, mourning the last moments of my life. I was a coward.
The raiders had slaughtered twenty soldiers in a matter of seconds… And now, now they wanted to kill us.
This wasn't a battle – it was a massacre.
And I wasn't the only one who thought it. It was clear in the dread that filled Caine's expression that he hadn't prepared for this outcome. Darren had gone white as the sand. Eve's eyes were wide as saucers and Ian and Lynn looked like they were ready to faint.
I tried to speak, but fear had lodged itself too deep in my throat. We couldn't run. The raiders had horses, and they knew where we camped. They knew we had Darren.
We had to stay and fight.
"S-shield Darren," Caine finally stammered. "We need to p-protect the Crown!"
"No! We need to…" Darren's protest fell on deaf ears.
Another deafening boom and the ground below us caved and shuddered, just as a bolt of lightening shot out from our right. Instinctively the entire faction cast out. Our magic was a large purple globe that crackled and moaned.
The raiders' magic rippled against our magical barrier before finally fizzling and sliding down to the scorched earth below.
"Pain cast!" Caine gasped. "Now!"
"We can't just hold this casting forever!" Darren argued. "We will waste all of our magic!"
"We need to target the raiders one-by-one, like you did to me in the mock battle," Lynn said.
"Leave the second - and third-years here, we have ten of us. We can take them on ourselves!" That was Jayson.
"Our best chance is all of us!" Ian protested. "We have more together than them!"
"But they are as strong as mages," the quiet voice was Priscilla. Even she was afraid. "We are only apprentices."
"Whoever wants to run, run. I'm staying."
"No, Darren, they'll kill you!"
"I'm with the prince."
"Me too."
In the end everyone was staying. And we were all fighting.
The first thing we did was dismount – there was no advantage on moving ground and our horses would only hinder us in battle. We quickly laid out a plan of attack, Caine and Darren plotting the course. The rest of us held onto our casting… but the barrier was starting to smell like molten rock. There was a tinkling like glass whenever lightening touched the same spot twice.
It would not hold much longer.
"Now!"
On Darren's command we released the casting and separated into two parties: those who could pain cast, and those that couldn't.
The group that couldn't formed a running barrier, long casting arrows and javelins with as much force as they could.
The raiders easily deflected their attacks, choosing in turn to send off their own missile assault of arrow and axe. Lucky for us, weather castings like lightning were too costly for the enemy to maintain.
Meanwhile the rest of us stayed behind. Using whatever blade we had on hand we dug deep into our palms, summoning as much warm air and sand as we could. There was loose earth everywhere: plenty of debris for our casting. We thrust our castings together, allowing the joint power to fuel our magic.
Our dust vortex began to cut across the fissured plains, fast and deadly in its course. The other apprentices were ready and ducked to the side, allowing the tower of sand to pass. The raiders beyond hastily threw up a barrier and dropped their long castings, unable to see anything beyond the fast whirlwind of sand that was blinding their sight.
But then they made a mistake: the raiders cast lightening.
With the heat of the raiders' own magic the vortex's particles fused together and melted. Sand had conducted their lightning, and within seconds the whirlwind transformed into a petrified web of sandglass.
It shattered their barrier.
Searing hot glass streaked out like jagged claws from the sky, piercing the raiders closest. Cries and screams followed. Several collapsed. White dust and blood rose up in a pillowing cloud, a hazy red clotting the air.
The non-pain casters of my faction charged forward while the rest of us released our magic.
I knelt shakily, retching into the sand. Others around me were doing the same. We had reached the end of our limits. If we tried to cast again we would end up unconscious. I took a deep breath and then froze.
There was a rustle to my left.
Darren stumbled out onto the field, determined to help the rest of our faction. I watched him, wishing I could follow suit. How was he still standing?
The prince always did have more magic than the rest of us.
Glancing out at the battle ahead I could see the odds had shifted. Ella and Loren stood out clearly with Caine, and the three of them were leading an assault on the remaining raiders. Five apprentices, including Darren, were close behind. Only three of the raiders still stood - but they were burned so badly they were having trouble casting.
I choked back relief. We were winning. Seven dead, three injured…
One of the dead raiders rose, scorch marks trailing like dark rivulets across his face. The others didn't see him – and Darren, Darren was too busy casting to notice.
I gave a hoarse cry but he was too far away.
"No!!!!!!!" Caine spotted the raider and launched himself forward, shoving the non-heir to the ground. The arrow embedded itself in the boy's chest.
Caine did not scream. Eyes open, mouth shut, he toppled to the ground, soundless. And then he went limp.
Darren struggled to pull himself up and make sense of what happened. Then he spotted Caine and a strangled scream severed the air. Magic flew from his hands. The raider who had just feigned death moments before dropped, lifeless.
Then Darren fainted. I started forward but my stomach rose up, roaring complaints. Unhappily, I stayed where I was and watched as another apprentice went to help the fallen fifth-year and the prince instead. Caine was gone. There was nothing anyone of us could do.
In the distance I could hear the shouts of the Ishir Regiment. Thank the gods. I clutched my ribs and breathed in a gasp of relief. The reinforcements had come.
Galloping forward Master Byron and the regiment mages charged the three remaining raiders, casting heavy metal nets that encased them within seconds. They sent in groups of men to take care of the bodies, the fallen soldiers and Caine, and then, finally, for us.
The last thing I remembered was my twin's face.
Bloodshot eyes. Alex. Screaming. "Where's Ella?"
I pointed, and then I shut my eyes.
CHAPTER SEVEN
"He's not eating. He hasn't eaten anything in days." The hysteria in Priscilla's voice was rising. "Please, Ronan, do something."
"I can't – he's in grief. The only thing that will help is time."
"That's not good enough!"
"Apprentice Priscilla, if you cannot keep your voice down I must ask you to leave." Master Joan's frosty voice cut through the air like a whip. The apprentice let out a shriek and stomped out of the infirmary tent, flies buzzing all around her as she snapped the flaps shut.
I opened my eyes, uncomfortably aware of the pungent smell of sweat and blood that was filling my nostrils. Thick, foul-smelling hides covered the tent frames. Everywhere I looked, soldiers and apprentices lay in cots. Bandages and vials were piled on tables nearest their beds. Restoration mages and apprentices dotted the room, alternating from one patient to the next as they continued to cast and treat naturally depending on their patient's symptoms.
In the cot nearest I could see Ella. Her dark skin glistened under the cracks of sunlight that were coming in through the entrance and black locks were plastered to her neck. She was already awake. As soon as she spotted me she gave a small smile. "Never thought we'd make it out alive," she croaked.
A Restoration apprentice raced forward to bring her water and then turned to offer the same to me. I drank down the cold liquid greedily and immediately the sharp headache I'd been feeling faded into a minor ache.
"Alex, your two favorite patients are awake," the girl called to my twin at the far side of the room. My brother rushed forward, a thick line of sweat staining his forehead as he attempted to wipe it away – only to smear blood and grime in its place. He looked worse than I felt. I wondered how long he'd been here treating us.
"Ryiah… Ella..." He immediately fell to the floor between us with a thud. His blue eyes were glittering.
"Calm down, handsome, they weren't going to leave you." The apprentice rolled her eyes at my brother's dramatics. "Your sister and lady love just needed some rest."
My twin didn't appear to hear. He kept staring at Ella, and there was something about the way my brother looked at her that made me feel like I was intruding.
"I – I thought I'd never see you again," he rasped.
Ella coughed weakly. "It would take a lot more than that to kill me."
<
br /> "Don't say that." He reached down to take her hand. I immediately averted my gaze. "Don't ever say that. You have no idea what I went through knowing you were out there, fighting…"
"Just stop talking and kiss me, Alex."
I attempted to stand, ignoring the protests of the Restoration mages around me as I left the two of them their privacy. As soon as I had left the tent I found Eve standing outside, looking upset and staring out at the rest of the oasis in frustration.
"Eve." I walked over to the pale girl. "How is everyone?"
"Caine's dead. Ten knights and one of the Combat mages from Ishir are dead. Half the Mahj soldiers are dead. How are we supposed to be?" The girl's voice broke and I realized she was close to crying.
"Have the prisoners talked?"
"They killed themselves before the regiment could question them. Slit their necks with their own blades as soon as the nets fell."
"Do you know if they were Calothian mages?" I asked suddenly. "Did we find out who they were?"
She laughed coldly. "They were ours. It's why they kept their faces hidden. I even recognized two of them from the Crown's Army… They weren't bandits or raiders, Ryiah, they were rebels. My father's men. Men I knew. Why would they do this?"
"Rebels?"
She drew a shaky breath. "It's why they were so prepared. Commander Ama thinks they wanted to stop the salt trade between Jerar and the Borea Isles. She said this is the first time this has happened – and she is sending a letter to the palace in Devon to alert my father and King Lucius." Her eyes met mine, suddenly anxious. "If some of the mages are leading a revolt then we can't be sure this won't happen again. Who knows how many others they may have recruited. What if this was only the beginning?"
There hadn't been a war within Jerar or any of the neighboring continents since Jerar had signed the Great Compromise almost a century back. There were rumors that Caltoth was trying to expand its southern border, but there had never been a formal demand and the Crown was careful to avoid a war with its northern neighbor at all costs. Breaking the multi-country treaty would end any support with the other two continents and cost us dearly.
The Black Mage: Apprentice Page 9
